Gender differences in place attachment and residential mobility

Media stories in Denmark are regularly reporting that young women are moving away from rural areas of Denmark in order to obtain education while young men are more often staying behind. These gender differences are often portrayed as being the result of the young men having more traditional values and being more attached to the places they were brought up in rural areas. In addition, differences attitudes towards educational aspirations are prominent in the media discourses explaining these gender differences. In this presentation, we investigate gender differences in place attachment, intentions to move as well as actual patterns of residential mobility among young people from two rural counties in Denmark. Questions raised are how big are the actual differences between the two gender and whether differences in educational aspirations can explain part of these. Data for the presentation are taken from the cohort study West Jutland Cohort Study - as well as from a survey of young adults in North Denmark Region.