Underutilization of one’s education at work contributes to overeducation, a phenomenon detrimental to one’s career. Anticipating a lack of gender egalitarian progress in the labor market, women may develop status anxiety and become more motivated to attain additional education to avoid the risk of downward mobility, even if excessive education may lead to overeducation. In the context of East Asia, where a lower level of gender egalitarianism and more structural barriers for women exist in the labor market than in the West, we examine the relationship between perceived gender egalitarian progress and probabilities of overeducation using a sample of young workers from the 2014/2015 East Asian Social Survey. We find that East Asian men perceive more gender egalitarian progress in the labor market than East Asian women; women’s perceived egalitarian progress is related to a reduced risk of overeducation in China and Taiwan but not Japan. Our research highlights how education serves as a strategy for status maintenance, particularly in contexts where gender equality has made limited progress, and how perceived gender egalitarian progress can protect women from overeducation.
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