Mothers' Employment in 19 Wealthy Western Countries: How Do Cultural and Institutional Factors Shape the Motherhood Employment Participation and Working Hours Gap among Women with Different Levels of Educational Attainment?

Irene Boeckmann, University of Massachusetts
Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts

Decades of research have found an effect of children on women’s employment hours. This research generally shows that greater family responsibilities affects labor market participation and employment hours for women. We examine this effect of children on women’s employment participation and weekly working hours (among the employed, controlling for selection into employment) across 19 wealth western countries. Using multilevel models, we examine whether and how other individual- and country-level policy and cultural factors might be mediating the effect of children. We find that higher availability of publicly funded childcare generally decreases the motherhood gap in employment participation and in working hours, while higher taxation of second earner's incomes, and more generous family allowance expenditures by the state increases the gap in employment and working hours between mothers and childless women. This is true for highly and medium educated women, but not the group of women with lower education attainment.