Occupation, educational level and gender differences in regional mobility - Sweden 1998-2003

Maria Brandén, Stockholm University

Research indicates that educational level affects men’s but not so much women’s regional mobility. This is often interpreted as if couples consider the man’s education more worth relocating for than the woman’s. Sex segregated labor markets makes it essential to focus also on occupations when studying these gender differences. This is the focus of the present study. Logistic regression models of migration events are applied to Swedish register data, covering Swedish dual-earner couples with common children in 1998-2003. Analyses reveal that men and women are regionally mobile in roughly the same occupations. The partner’s occupation has a slightly stronger impact on women’s mobility than on men’s. Finally, even after controlling for occupations of men and women, it is still mainly the man’s educational level that affects a couple’s regional mobility. This gives support to the notion of couples considering the man’s investment in a high education more worth relocating for than the woman’s high education. It also indicates that women suffer the risk of becoming both tied movers and tied stayers.