NAVIGATING PAID WORK AND PARENTHOOD: NEW PARENTS’ LONG-TERM EMPLOYMENT PATHWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES

Mothers have contributed disproportionately to women’s rising employment rates in the United States, and contemporary fathers spend more time caring for children compared to previous generations of men. Still, parenthood continues to shape women’s and men’s employment participation patterns in profoundly gendered ways. Changes and continuities in aggregate labor market participation patterns raise questions with regard to the variation in mothers’ and fathers’ employment participation, and in the ways in which different-sex couples organize engagement in paid work after they become parents. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this dissertation examine the variation in new parents’ long-term employment pathways during the preschool-years of the first child, using sequence analysis techniques and group-based trajectory modelling. Findings show that across cohorts, stably partnered, different-sex couples have become somewhat more similar in their engagement in paid work after becoming parents. However, considerable variation remains. I argue that fathers’ employment participation patterns are an important source of variation for the ways in which different-sex, two-parent families engage in paid work while children are young, and fathers’ very long work hours are linked to a more “specialized” division of labor in two-parent families

Fatherhood, intra-household employment dynamics, and men's earnings in a cross-national perspective

Studies find fatherhood earnings premiums in several European countries and the United States. Yet little research investigates how intra-household dynamics shape the size of the fatherhood premium cross-nationally. Using data from the Luxembourg Income Study we examine how the division of labor in two-parent households is associated with the fatherhood premium in fourteen countries. We find cross-national variation in the presence and size of the fatherhood premium. Our findings also show that the fatherhood premium frequently depends on the household division of labor: Men with caregiver partners are mostly likely to receive the fatherhood premium. We consider how cultural and institutional contexts may shape the cross-national variation in fatherhood premiums

Mothers' employment in wealthy countries: How do cultural and institutional factors shape the motherhood employment and working hours gap?

Existing research shows that women's employment patterns are not so much driven by gender, as by gendered parenthood, with childless women and men (including fathers) employed at substantially higher levels than mothers in most countries. We focus on the cross-national variation in the gap in employment participation and working time between mothers and women without children in the same household. This variation remains salient, even when we control for individual and household-level factors, such as human capital, partnered status, and household income. We provide evidence that institutional and cultural contexts shape their opportunities in important ways: more generous paid leaves, publicly supported childcare services for very young children, and cultural support for maternal employment predict lower differences in employment participation and working hours between mothers and childless women, while the length of job protected leave is associated with larger motherhood employment gaps

Work-family policy trade-offs for mothers? Unpacking the cross-national variation in motherhood earnings penalties

Recent scholarship suggests welfare state interventions, as measured by policy indices, create gendered trade-offs wherein reduced work–family conflict corresponds to greater gender wage inequality. The authors reconsider these trade-offs by unpacking these indices and examining specific policy relationships with motherhood-based wage inequality to consider how different policies have different effects. Using original policy data and Luxembourg Income Study microdata, multilevel models across 22 countries examine the relationships among country-level family policies, tax policies, and the motherhood wage penalty. The authors find policies that maintain maternal labor market attachment through moderate-length leaves, publicly funded childcare, lower marginal tax rates on second earners, and paternity leave are correlated with smaller motherhood wage penalties

The Family Working Time Model: Toward More Gender Equality in Work and Care

Since the millennium, the labor market participation of women and mothers is increasing across European countries. Several work/care policy measures underlie this evolution. At the same time, the labor market behavior of men and fathers, as well as their involvement in care work, is relatively unchanging, meaning that employed mothers are facing an increased burden with respect to gainful employment and providing care. We propose a family working time model that incentivizes fathers and mothers to both work in extended part-time employment. It provides a benefit in form of a lumpsum transfer or income replacement for each parent if, and only if, both parents work 30 hours per week. Thus, it explicitly addresses fathers and - contrary to most conventional family policies - actively promotes the dual earner/dual carer paradigm. Combining microsimulation and labor supply estimation, we empirically analyze the potential of the family working time model in the German context. The relatively small share of families already choosing the symmetric distribution of about 30 working hours would increase by 60 per cent. By showing that a lump-sum transfer especially benefits low-income families, we contribute to the debate about redistributive implications of family policies. The basic principles of the model generalize to other European countries where families increasingly desire an equal distribution of employment and care. In order to enhance the impact of such a policy, employers' norms and workplace culture as well as the supply of high-quality childcare must catch-up with changing workforce preferences

A Service of zbw Mothers' employment in wealthy countries: How do cultural and institutional factors shape the motherhood employment and working hours gap? MOTHERS' EMPLOYMENT IN WEALTHY COUNTRIES: HOW DO CULTURAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS SHAPE THE MOTHE

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte

Beyond Childcare: Changes in the Amount and Types of Parent-Child Time over Three Decades

Parents’ time with children has increased over the past several decades, according to many scholars. Yet, research predominantly focuses on childcare activities, overlooking the majority of time parents spend with children. Using time diaries from the 1986-2015 Canadian General Social Survey, we examine trends in the quantity and distribution of parents’ childcare time and total contact time in the company of children, as well as the behavioral or compositional drivers of these trends. Contact time with children increased sharply since the mid-1980s, by 1 hour per day for fathers and 1.5 hours for mothers. This rise was driven not only by childcare activities but also parents’ time in housework and mothers’ time in leisure with children present. Decomposition analyses indicate that changes in parenting behavior primarily explain these increases in contact time. This study expands knowledge on intensive parenting through a more comprehensive understanding of parents’ daily lives with children