This study explores stratification within the Austrian university system by focusing on social selectivity and gender-segregation across fields of study. We investigate how much the choice of field of study is associated with parental educational background and the gender of the students—especially, how these characteristics vary across individual (teaching) subjects. Teacher training is often regarded as typically chosen by women and preferred by so-called educational climbers. However, previous studies focus on clusters of fields of study and do not take into account the differences between individual (teaching) subjects. We address this research gap by focusing on a comparison between those who have chosen to undergo a teaching program in a specific subject and those who have studied this specific subject without pedagogical training. By using administrative data from first-year students at Austrian state universities (N = 23,400) in 2016–2017, and applying logistic regression analysis, the results demonstrate that in almost all analyzed fields of study, similar patterns of gender-segregation according to the choice of fields of study can be observed, regardless of whether it concerns a teacher training subject or a corresponding equivalent academic subject. Educational climbers tend to opt more frequently for teacher training subjects than for their corresponding fields—especially in some of the mathematics-oriented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. We contribute to comparative sociological literature by introducing the approach of comparing teacher training subjects to their academic equivalents and revealing a more nuanced picture regarding horizontal inequalities in higher education.

中文翻译：

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跨研究领域的社会选择性和性别隔离：来自奥地利的比较证据

本研究通过关注跨研究领域的社会选择性和性别隔离来探索奥地利大学系统内的分层。我们调查了学习领域的选择与父母的教育背景和学生的性别有多大关系——尤其是这些特征如何在各个（教学）科目之间变化。教师培训通常被认为是女性的典型选择，并且受到所谓的教育攀登者的青睐。然而，以前的研究集中于研究领域的集群，并没有考虑到个体（教学）科目之间的差异。我们通过比较那些选择接受特定学科教学计划的人和那些没有接受过教学培训就学习该特定学科的人之间的比较来解决这一研究差距。N  = 23,400）在 2016-2017 年，并应用逻辑回归分析，结果表明，在几乎所有分析的研究领域中，可以观察到根据研究领域选择的类似性别隔离模式，无论是否涉及教师培训科目或相应的同等学术科目。教育攀登者往往更频繁地选择教师培训科目，而不是相应的领域——尤其是在一些以数学为导向的科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 科目中。我们通过引入将教师培训科目与其学术同等学科进行比较的方法，并揭示高等教育中横向不平等的更细微的画面，从而为比较社会学文献做出贡献。