FROM PIŁA TO GÖTEBORG: EXPLORING GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ERASMUS+ KNOWLEDGE AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE A quantitative study on gender differences in Erasmus+ knowledge among young people in Poland and Sweden

Sammanfattning

Erasmus+ is an EU program that supports education, training, sport, and youth in Europe,with the possibility of studying abroad being the most well-known aspect. While researchexists on participation in exchange programs and Erasmus+ regarding, e.g., gender, socioeconomic factors, personality traits, and motivations, few studies take into consideration thatto attend exchange programs, one must have knowledge of them. This study aims toinvestigate the differences in Erasmus+ knowledge between men and women, as researchstates there is an overrepresentation of women in exchange programs. The thesis focuses onPoland and Sweden, two countries similar to each other in many ways, but that differ ingender roles and gender equality. I argue that in Poland, young women have less knowledgeof Erasmus+ than young men, and in Sweden, that there is no gender difference in Erasmus+knowledge, due to the gender roles, gender equality, and gender differences in highereducation. Logistic regression results, based on the dataset by the European Commissionbefore the European elections 2024, show a positive and significant association betweengender and knowledge of Erasmus+ in Poland, meaning that young women have moreknowledge, and no relationship between gender and knowledge of Erasmus+ in Sweden.