The Importance of Mother: Labor Force Participation and Intergenerational Mobility of Women

Abstract

Previous research concerning the linkages between women's occupational origins and destinations has applied models developed for the study of men's intergenerational occupational mobility. In this paper, we use an approach that incorporates two unique aspects of women's occupational experiences. First, we consider housework to be a possible occupational outcome for women. Second, we consider the occupations of mothers as well as those of fathers in the portrayal of women's occupational origins. We show that this approach more fully displays the influences of occupational origins on women's subsequent occupational activities. In particular, we find that women whose mothers worked are themselves more likely to join the labor force, and their occupations are likely to resemble their mother's.