Horizontal Stratification in Brazil’s Higher Education (1960–2010)

Abstract

Using census’ data from 1960 to 2010, the study focuses on the horizontal stratification in Brazil’s higher education – i.e., inequalities among sex and race groups which completed the superior level of schooling. Three major trends, not in the same direction, were detected. First, university access has been democratized, with an increase in the relative share of women, blacks, browns, and indigenous people. In the general population, 9.4% of the women and 7.2% of the men had a college degree in 2010. Whites were 95% of the college graduates in 1960; in 2010, they represent three out of four graduates – although whites are less than half the Brazilian population. Second, this inclusion does not imply equal access to all university careers; it took place more intensely in fields less valued by the labor market. Brazil has a stratification pattern similar to that of the United States: education, humanities, and health – with Medicine as an outlier – are fields with a larger concentration of women, while careers related to business, engineering, and technology attract more men. In terms of race, there is a higher concentration of brown and black people in careers in applied social sciences and humanities and especially in the field of Religion. Finally, inferential analysis revealed persistent wage inequalities. Women with university degrees still earn less than her male counterparts in the same career, despite the decrease in the wage gap. More dramatically, disadvantages related to race fluctuated but did not undergo significant changes throughout these decades.