Gender and ethnic differences in occupational positions and earnings among nurses and engineers in Norway: identical educational choices, unequal outcomes

Abstract

Research shows that men who pursue an education in a female-traditional occupation are more likely to be employed outside their occupation, in management positions and in better paid positions than their female colleagues. It is not clear whether this holds for men with an immigrant background and whether differences in employment positions and earnings between men of different ethnic origins are more or less pronounced in female-traditional occupations than in male-traditional professions. This article compares individuals educated in nursing and engineering (i.e. archetypical examples of female- and male-traditional professions, respectively). Results show that findings based on men with a majority ethnic background cannot be generalized to male immigrants. Differences in the likelihood of being employed outside professional nursing and engineering are pronounced between native-born Norwegian men and men with a non-western immigrant background. Nursing seems, however, to offer greater career prospects for ethnic minorities than does engineering.