Abstract
The “motherhood earnings penalty” is a well-established finding in many Western countries. However, a divide between mothers and nonmothers might oversimplify reality given that the family life course has diversified over the last decades. In addition, whether family choices have consequences for women’s employment and earnings in later life is not well known, particularly in a comparative perspective. Using data on 50- to 59-year-old women from the Generations and Gender Programme, the British Household Panel Survey, and SHARELIFE for 22 European countries, we derive a typology of women’s family trajectories and estimate its association with women’s later-life employment and earnings. Whereas family trajectory–related differences with regard to employment were relatively small, our findings reveal a clear, long-lasting family trajectory gradient in earnings. Childless women (with or without a partner) as well as single mothers had higher personal earnings than women whose family trajectories combined parenthood and partnership. Moreover, in societies in which reconciliation of work and family during midlife is less burdensome, labor market outcomes of women following different family trajectories converge. Our findings show that women’s fertility and partnership behavior are inevitably interrelated and jointly influence employment and earning patterns until later in life. The results imply that promoting equal employment opportunities could have long-lasting effects on women’s economic independence.
Highlights
The increase of female employment was the most significant change in labor markets during the past century (Esping-Andersen 2009; Goldin 2006)
Country-comparative research suggests that the strength of the motherhood effect on women’s employment and personal earnings is shaped by contextual factors, such as women’s opportunities to reconcile work and family (Abendroth et al 2014; Budig et al 2012, 2016; Cukrowska-Torzewska 2017; Gangl 2004; Gornick and Meyers 2003; Halldén et al 2016; Harkness and Waldfogel 2003)
Building on the motherhood earnings penalty literature, we argue that diversifying family patterns in the second half of the twenty-first century (Elzinga and Liefbroer 2007; Kiernan 2004; Sobotka and Toulemon 2008) calls for a more refined analysis of the consequences of women’s family life courses for their labor market outcomes
Summary
The increase of female employment was the most significant change in labor markets during the past century (Esping-Andersen 2009; Goldin 2006). Mothers’ employment rates and wages lag those of men and childless women, even when work experience is controlled for. This “motherhood (earnings) penalty” is a well-established finding in many Western countries (e.g., Correll et al 2007; Harkness and Waldfogel 2003; Sigle-Rushton and Waldfogel 2007a). Building on the motherhood earnings penalty literature, we argue that diversifying family patterns in the second half of the twenty-first century (Elzinga and Liefbroer 2007; Kiernan 2004; Sobotka and Toulemon 2008) calls for a more refined analysis of the consequences of women’s family life courses for their labor market outcomes. A simple distinction between mothers and childless women no longer reflects reality
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