Objective While in many countries women have been increasing their participation in higher education, fields of study continue to be segregated by gender. Men dominate the technical fields which include mathematics, engineering and the physical sciences, whereas women tend to engage in areas that have a social and caring dimension. Despite numerous policies to enhance gender equalities in society, gender segregation in higher education, ironically, appears to be more pronounced in post-industrial countries, such as Germany, than in developing/transforming societies.Although gender differences in field of study and occupational choices are shaped by multifarious influences, the role of parents might be particularly worth attention because parents are the primary and one of the most influential socialising agents in childhood and adolescence. In fact, one possible source of students’ knowledge about and interest in a particular field of study and career early on stems from parental education and occupation. The impact of parents’ occupational fields and its gender typicality has received less attention than parental education in early research. Even though some studies have identified the association of parental occupations with students’ engagement in gender-atypical fields of study, they do not provide any empirical evidence of the mechanism for the relationship.Despite the possibly significant influence of parental occupation on the educational and career choices of adolescent boys and girls, previous quantitative studies rarely examined the mechanisms for the relationship between such gender differences and parental occupations. With the proposed research “Understanding the impact of parental occupation on gender differences in field of study and occupational choices in Germany”, that comprises 3 projects using secondary and primary data, I seek to offer new evidence on how parental occupations influence students’ choices of a gender-atypical field of study and career. Fields of science social sciencessociologysocial issuessocial inequalitiesgender inequalitysocial sciencessociologygender studiesgender equalitysocial scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemploymentsocial sciencessociologysocial issuesunemploymentnatural sciencesphysical sciences Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2016 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF Coordinator EBERHARD KARLS UNIVERSITAET TUEBINGEN Net EU contribution € 159 460,80 Address Geschwister-scholl-platz 72074 Tuebingen Germany See on map Region Baden-Württemberg Tübingen Tübingen, Landkreis Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00