The study investigates to what extent students in lower and intermediate secondary school tracks in Germany have gender-(a)typical aspirations at the end of their schooling, but choose occupations that differ from these aspirations in the application process and in the first vocational training position. The analysis is based on a local longitudinal survey from 2011/2012 among pupils in the last year of schooling, who applied for company- or school-based vocational training places. Multilevel models are applied to estimate differences in gender typing between realistic occupational aspirations, target occupations in the application phase, and the first training occupation. Results indicate that the application phase is a process of making compromises toward more gender-typical norms. The job and training occupations of young women differ from their aspirations more than those among young men, independent of school type and performance. Particularly, women from higher status groups give up untypical aspirations in the application phase. Among young men, it is mainly the application and training positions of students from lower secondary schools and students with gender-atypical school grades that have higher gender conformity than their aspirations. Overall, these adaptation processes in application behavior and placement in the education and training system contribute to the persistence of occupational segregation in Germany—in addition to gender typical aspirations. © 2020, The Author(s).
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