Post on 28-Mar-2015
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