The paths clearly diverge for men and women in the lower strata. Men exchange their status as a student for status as a worker with no overlap between the two, while most women exchange their status as a student for one as a mother, housewife or assistant housewife without passing through the labour market. In the low strata in the second group of countries, half of the 20-year-old women are no longer single. In the first group, this change in civil status for women in the same stratum takes place at age 24.