The study outline differences among classes and genders within higher education. Because of the expansion of places of study, higher education has lost some of its former selectivity. The matriculation of one full birth cohort into Swedish higher education was studied.The results showed that the enrolment of working-and intermediate-class women had increased, while women from the upper-middle class, also previously enrolled in higher education, had expanded their educational options becoming involved in prestigious and previously male-dominated programmes.

The hypothesis that an economic recession in society leads to class equalisation in the recruitment of new students to higher education is tested, using data from Sweden. The 1990s is a period suitable for these analyses, as the recession started in 1991, reached the highest unemployment level in 1993; finally, at the end of the decade the labour market recovered. Multivariate, binary logistic regressions of entry into higher education are performed with gender divided analyses. Register data from Sweden comprising the total population in the age range 18-21 years from six cohorts are analysed. When the labour market was the most difficult, more young students from lower classes entered higher education. When the labour market recovered, men from lower classes tended to abandon higher education. However, women from lower classes continued to increase their involvement. The result indicate that the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test, works in favour of men from higher classes through repeated test taking. The hypothesis about the influence from the labour market was supported for the group of men, while results were less clear for women. The results indicate that future research must carefully consider gender aspects.

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Transitions from education to work constitute a distinct set of situations where discrimination is likely to occur. Gender beliefs generally disadvantage women, and when coupled with beliefs regarding parental responsibility, tend to heavily disadvantage mothers. Yet we suggest that professional credentials create a divided labour market, with ameliorative effects. Credentials tend to match specifically to jobs and replace other means of determining the performance expectations of various job candidates. This should be especially true in the public sector, where hiring procedures are more transparent. As a result, we hypothesise that mothers with professional credentials will be less disadvantaged within the occupational market matched to their credentials, especially in the public sector. Data from Sweden, following 43,646 graduates with professional degrees into the labour market, generally support this interpretation, though substantial motherhood penalties remain in many professions. We briefly discuss the implications of these findings.

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