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Regional Gender Differences in Vocational Education in Bulgaria

Gender Segregation in Vocational Education

ISBN: 978-1-78560-347-1, eISBN: 978-1-78560-346-4

Publication date: 18 November 2015

Abstract

This study seeks to ascertain whether there are regional gender differences in vocational education in Bulgaria at the upper secondary level and to shed more light on the main factors for the (non-)emergence of these differences. The research has drawn on data from the National Statistical Institute and the Centre for Information in Education in Bulgaria as well as a nationally representative school-leavers survey (2014); it has applied descriptive statistics and multilevel modelling for the data analysis. Overall, the present study demonstrates that the regional dimension is indispensable for understanding the development of vocational education and gender differentiation in education. The analysis provides evidence that the mechanism by which the education system contributes to regional gender segregation in vocational education is its opportunity structures at the regional level, which are related to vocational education offers. In addition, we found a positive association between industrial development and the share of women in engineering at the regional level.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the Bulgarian–Swiss Research Programme (grant agreement No. IZEBZO_142969) for the project ‘Social disparities and regional differences in school-to-work transitions in Bulgaria’ (2012–2015) (http://www.schooltowork.bg). The project was co-financed by a grant from Switzerland through the Swiss Contribution to the Enlarged European Union and from the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science. We would like to thank the editors of this volume as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the earlier drafts of this study.

Citation

Ilieva-Trichkova, P., Stoilova, R. and Boyadjieva☆ , P. (2015), "Regional Gender Differences in Vocational Education in Bulgaria ", Gender Segregation in Vocational Education (Comparative Social Research, Vol. 31), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 151-180. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-631020150000031006

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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