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Maternity breaks: Unemployment spells or relevant experience?

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  • Tomlin, Bryan

Abstract

A correspondence study is used to determine how taking a maternity break from the labor force to raise a child affects a mother's ability to get an administrative job relative to mothers who did not take such a break. Relative to mothers who did not take a maternity break, those who did were about half as likely to receive a response to their application, as were those who spent the same time working as a nanny. Listing “stay-at-home mother” as relevant experience on one's resumé does nothing to shrink this gap. These results are consistent with the effect of unemployment on call-back rates as identified by previous research, suggesting that employers view maternity breaks as a form of unemployment rather than relevant experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomlin, Bryan, 2022. "Maternity breaks: Unemployment spells or relevant experience?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 673-681.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:198:y:2022:i:c:p:673-681
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.04.015
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Maternity; Employment; Field experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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