Disentangling Cohort Changes in the Cognitive Gender Gap in Europe: The Role of Work-Family Histories

Thomas Arnhold , International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Daniela Weber, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Agneta Herlitz, Karolinska Institutet
Valeria Bordone, University of Vienna

Cognitive performance has risen across European cohorts, with gains often larger for women than for men. Yet, the life course mechanisms underpinning these gendered cohort dynamics remain unclear. Guided by cognitive reserve theory, which links cognitively stimulating life experiences to cognitive resilience in later life, and considering increases in women’s labour market participation, this study examines to what extent shifts in work-family life courses explain changing gender gaps in later life cognitive functioning. Specifically, we disentangle to what extent cohort changes in the cognitive gender gap are attributable to (i) compositional changes in life courses and (ii) changing associations between these life course patterns and later life cognitive functioning. Drawing on Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) waves 1-9 (2004-2022), we construct work-family typologies using multichannel sequence analysis. We then relate typologies to cross-cohort changes in the cognitive gender gap using a panel extension of the Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, separating composition, group-specific associations, and interaction components. Preliminary results indicate larger cognitive cohort effects for women than men at the same ages. Women outperform men in episodic memory, and this female advantage is larger in later-born cohorts. In verbal fluency, earlier-born cohorts show a male advantage, converging towards parity in later-born cohorts. Concurrently, later-born cohorts of women more commonly show life courses characterised by full-time or part-time employment than earlier cohorts. In contrast, men do not show substantial compositional shifts in trajectories. The completed analysis will evaluate whether these compositional life course patterns explain the changing cognitive gender gap.

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 Presented in Session 73. Cognitive Aeging, Dementia and Life Course Determinants of Cognitive Health