In this chapter, the authors look at the consequences of the gradual expansion of both vocational and academic tertiary education in Switzerland from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, on social inequalities in higher education by class and especially by gender. The analysis is based on data obtained from a survey of two Swiss-German birth cohorts; one born between 1949 and 1951 and the other between 1959 and 1961. Although the expansion was associated with the gradual differentiation of the institutions of tertiary vocational education, it was not related to variation in the effects of social background on either higher education enrolment or completion. Social background effects remained stable across cohorts and the effects of gender and the underrepresentation of women in higher education also remained relatively constant.