Can some women have it all? Social group differences in the parenthood effect re-examined

Pia SchoberUniversity of Cambridge

Motivation

Gender inequality in time allocations and earnings widen from parenthood

Earnings penalty lower for highly educated mothers: they return faster and full-time and have higher wages

Motherhood gap by education very large in UK and results in lower life-time earnings and pensions

Adequate childcare necessary for mothers’ return to work and longer domestic work time reduces women’s wages

Quantitative studies on mothers’ labour market outcomes control for education or use it as earnings proxy (Smeaton 2006; Vlasblom and Schippers 2004)

Few studies of mothers’ labour market participation consider interdependence with domestic work

Literature

Existing domestic work literature describes differences by education (Sullivan 2000; Gershuny 2000)

Qualitative studies concentrate on social group variations in mothers’ identities (e.g. Hays 1996)

Recent studies focus on identity versus institutional constraints (e.g. McRae 2003; Crompton 2006)

Few studies explore the meaning of educational differences around parenthood and their origins

What can explain differences in the domestic work arrangements of mothers with low, medium and high levels of education?

Education: sources of advantage

Human capital theory (Becker 1981) Skills, experience, knowledge and other personal

attributes contributing to productivity and earnings potential

Recent extension to social and personal capital Sociological theories (e.g. Bourdieu 1986, Coleman

1988) Social position incl. financial, social and cultural

capital resources Cultural capital may include gender role

identities, career orientations, childcare ideals

Explanations for women‘s domestic work

Neo-classical economic theory Opportunity costs Outsourcing of housework and childcare

Resource-bargaining approach Partner’s contributions

Identity e.g. Doing gender and childcare ideals Own and partner’s contributions

Social networks e.g. help from grandparents Statutory policies e.g. maternity leave, childcare tax

credit Employer provided family-friendly arrangements

Hypotheses - Transmission of advantage

Higher educational attainment increases:H1: present earnings and ability to outsource housework

and childcareH2: future earnings potential and opportunity costs of

domestic workH3: egalitarian gender role identity and career orientationH4: choice of equally educated partner: contradictory

effects of partners’ earnings potential and gender role identity

Measures of mothers‘ domestic arrangements

Women‘s weekly housework hours Men‘s weekly housework hours Whether father shares childcare responsibility Whether household has help with housework How child is cared for while mother works

Method and Data

British Household Panel Survey (1992-2005) Sample of 520 cohabiting couples becoming parents Women older than 20 years at birth Focus on 2nd year after 1st birth OLS and logistic regressions with lagged dependent

variables Not considered: maternity leave and

interdependence with paid work

Explanatory variables (pre-birth)

Highest level of education: low (<A-levels), medium(>=A-levels), high(>=university degree)

H1: Women‘s hourly wage rateH2: Women’s earnings potential

Essex score (incl. education, occupation mean wage x age, and work experience)

Mean wage of occupation, interaction with age Hope-Goldthorpe scale of occupational status

H3: Latent factor of women‘s gender role attitudesH4: Partners‘ education, present and potential earnings,

and partners’ gender role attitudesControls: Pre-birth dependent var, partners‘ ages, relationship

duration, marital status at birth, age and sex of 1st child, 2nd child or pregnant, survey year, region

Modelling strategy1. Education+controls2. Step 1+present earnings3. Step 1+earnings potential4. Step 1+gender role attitudes5. Combination of most significant variables

Differences by educational level

 

Women's work hours

Women’s housework

hours

Partners' housework

hours

Fathers sharing

childcare Help with

housework

Informal vs formal

chc

Woman low education -11.629*** 3.865** 0.265 -0.633^ -2.050* 1.612***

Woman medium education -7.327** 2.360* 0.235 -0.285 -1.001^ 0.815*

Man low education 6.852*** -2.129 -0.350 0.434 -0.829 0.968*

Man medium education 6.753** -2.138 0.195 0.381 -0.785 0.822*

Controls: Pre-birth dependent var, partners‘ ages, relationship duration, marital status at birth, age and sex of 1st child, have 2nd child or pregnant, survey year, region

Results: Transmission of advantageControls+education +following: Coeff sign

Sign. Diff. low-high

Sign. diff. med-high

Sign. diff. low-med

women's wage ** yes yes nowomen's EP ** no no nowomen's GRA *** yes yes noEP and GRA both*** no no nowomen's wage * yes yes n.a.women's EP * no no n.a.women's GRA no yes yes n.a.partners' GRA *** no yes n.a.EP and partner GRA PGRA*** no no n.a.women's wage * yes no n.a.women's EP ** no no n.a.women's GRA no yes no n.a.partners' GRA ^ yes no n.a.EP and PGRA EP* no no n.a.women's wage * no n.a. n.a.women's EP * no n.a. n.a.women's GRA *** no n.a. n.a.EP and GRA GRA***, EP* no n.a. n.a.women's wage ** yes no nowomen's EP ^ yes no yeswomen's GRA no yes yes nowage and EP wage* no no no

Note: EP=earnings potential, GRA=Gender role attitude; Controls:Pre-birth dependent var, partners‘ ages, relationship duration, marital status at birth, age and sex of 1st child, have 2nd child or pregnant, survey year, region

Informal vs. formal chc

Women's paid work hours

Women's housework

Housework help

Father shares chc

Conclusion

H1: Present earnings account for low-medium differences in paid work and formal childcare use and for medium-high differences in housework help and formal childcare

H2: Earnings potential accounts for several differences between women with low or medium vs. high education

H3: Gender role identities account for educational differences in childcare division

H4: Partners’ education largely insignificant; GRA important for women’s housework and outsourcing but partners’ earnings are insignificant

Useful to consider separately mothers’ identities and differentiate present and future earnings

Next steps: accounting for selection into parenthood

Results: Transmission of advantageControls+education +following: Coeff sign

Sign. Diff. low-high

Sign. diff. med-high

Sign. diff. low-med

women's wage ** yes yes nowomen's EP ** no no nowomen's GRA *** yes yes noEP and GRA both*** no no nowomen's wage * yes yes n.a.women's EP * no no n.a.women's GRA no yes yes n.a.partners' GRA *** no yes n.a.EP and partner GRA PGRA*** no no n.a.women's wage * yes no n.a.women's EP ** no no n.a.women's GRA no yes no n.a.Essex score and GRA E-Score* no no n.a.women's wage * no n.a. n.a.women's EP * no n.a. n.a.women's GRA *** no n.a. n.a.EP and GRA GRA***, Escore* no n.a. n.a.women's wage ** yes no nowomen's EP no yes no yeswomen's GRA no yes yes nowage and GRA wage** no no no

Note: EP=earnings potential, GRA=Gender role attitude; Controls:Pre-birth dependent var, partners‘ ages, relationship duration, marital status at birth, age and sex of 1st child, have 2nd child or pregnant, survey year, region

Informal vs. formal chc

Women's paid work hours

Women's housework

Housework help

Father shares chc

Change in couples‘ division of labour

0

20

40

60

80

-2 -1 1 2 3

Years before and after 1st birth

Percent

Women with main childcare responsibility

Women's housework share

Women's paid work hours share

Change in paid work and housework hours

0

25

50

-2 -1 1 2 3

Years before and after 1st birth

Hrs/week

Women's housework hours Men's housework hours

Women's paid work hours Men's paid work hours

0

25

50

-2 -1 1 2 3

Years before and after 1st birth

Hrs/week

Women's housework hours Men's housework hours

Women's paid work hours Men's paid work hours

Results

Mothers' share of ….

Woman's pre-birth housework share 0.023 ** 0.053 *** -0.011 *Woman's pre-birth paid work share -0.001 -0.004 0.047 ***Woman's relative hourly earnings -0.006 0.005 -0.001Log of man's monthly earnings 0.229 0.177 -0.249Woman's hourly wage top quartile -0.547 -0.724 * 0.354Woman's hourly wage mid 50% -0.531 -0.714 ** 0.245Woman's hourly wage bottom quartile-omittedWoman's gender role attitudes -0.763 *** -0.651 *** 0.740 ***Man's gender role attitudes -0.544 * -0.643 ** 0.473 *

Childcare responsibility

Housework hours

Paid work hours

Coeff Coeff Coeff