Mothers and the process of social stratification

Abstract

The question posed is how the mother's education and occupation influence children's educational and occupational status. The chapter follows the chronological sequence of the classical model of status attainment (Blau & Duncan 1967). The specific questions are: (a) how large is the influence of the mother on her children's status attainment? (b) how does the mother's influence, relative to the father, affect her children's status attainment? (c) in how far does the mother's status background have a special impact on her daughter's, compared with her son's status attainment? (d) how has the mother's influence, relative to the father, on her children's status attainment changed over time?

Adding the mother's influence to the classical status attainment model showed that the main conclusions of stratification research have to be altered regarding the total size of the impact of social origin. The mother's socioeconomic resources have always been an important additional source for the transfer of status advantages from one generation to the nex., The impact of social origin on the education of children increasingly unfolds via the education of both parents and decreasingly via their occupational status. Yet, the occupational resources of the mother are important for the educational attainment level of sons and daughters and for the occupational attainment level of daughters.

Mother's influence on her children's educational attainment is as large as the father's influence. The mother influences only her daughter's and not her son's occupational attainment. Later in the daughter's career, the mother's influence becomes stronger than the father's influence on her daughter's occupational status attainment. Interestingly, the mode by which its status resources are transferred differs for the educational and occupational reproduction. Both parents' resources, may the breadwinner be the father or not, are supplementary for the process of educational reproduction. However, within occupational reproduction, the main mode of mother's and father's status transfer are not supplemental. The mother's occupational status does not affect the occupational status attainment of sons.

For occupational reproduction we find indications for the existence of a sex-role model. The mother's occupational status is important only for her daughter's but not for her son's occupational attainment. For most of daughters it holds that their occupational location remains essentially fixed to their mother's occupational status. The expansion that children imply their same-sex parent to have expert knowledge on questions regarding lifestyle, career opportunities and the like. Possibly we may be dealing with a male (fathers and sons) and a female (mothers and daughters) mobility regime, regarding occupational reproduction.

Over the years, the mother's influence has decreased in a similar way as the father's influence for the educational levels of children. However, some results suggest that maybe currently we are witnessing an increase of the importance of the mother's occupational status for the occupational attainment of her daughter. It may be the case that the influence of the mother's occupational status is increasing because of her growing occupational resources. Studies that find a decreasing influence of social origin are mostly based on older data. Possibly we are witnessing a reversal in trends on occupational status reproduction for the most recent decennium.