Gender Differences in the Transition to Adulthood in France: Is There Convergence Over the Recent Period?

Numerous studies have shown that educational attainment and labour force status have a strong impact on the timing of family formation for both men and women. The effects of educational level, school enrolment and employment seem to be different for men and women. The aim of this article is to investigate how gender-specific differences in family formation have changed over time, and more particularly, whether these differences have disappeared in recent years. We use a large-scale survey (more than 240,000 men and women born after 1940) conducted within the French 1999 census and apply event history techniques. The sample size allows us to test our hypotheses with more sophisticated models that cover several interactions. Our data fully support the convergence hypothesis for men and women with regard to the effects of educational attainment and working status (working/not working). However, it is only partly relevant for the effects of their school enrolment status on entry into first union and parenthood. For both men and women, the impact of work experience on first union disappears over time, but remains important for first parenthood.