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The Employment of Married Mothers in Great Britain: 1974-2000

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  • Paul Gregg
  • Maria Gutierrez-Domenech
  • Jane Waldfogel

Abstract

This paper analyses the increase in mothers¿ employment in Britain over the period 1974¿2000. The approach consists of isolating those birth cohorts whose mothers experienced significant increases in employment and relating those to changes in policies (maternity rights, taxation and childcare). The results suggest that maternity rights have induced a change in behaviour, toward returning to work in the first year post-birth, among many mothers who would have otherwise gone back to work when their children were age 3 to 5. This effect has been most marked among better-educated and higher paid mothers and has strengthened as real wages have risen through time. However, the paper also suggests that the increased labour market experience and job tenure of mothers as a result of maternity rights legislation has only had a very modest impact on earnings. This is as a result of most of the extra experience being part-time which has very low returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Gregg & Maria Gutierrez-Domenech & Jane Waldfogel, 2003. "The Employment of Married Mothers in Great Britain: 1974-2000," CEP Discussion Papers dp0596, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0596
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Machin, Stephen, 1996. "Wage Inequality in the UK," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 47-64, Spring.
    2. Burgess, Simon & Gregg, Paul & Propper, Carol & Washbrook, Elizabeth, 2008. "Maternity rights and mothers' return to work," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 168-201, April.
    3. Stephen Nickell & Patricia Jones & Glenda Quintini, 2002. "A Picture of Job Insecurity Facing British Men," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 1-27, January.
    4. Stephen Machin, 2003. "Wage Inequality Since 1975," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Richard Dickens & Paul Gregg & Jonathan Wadsworth (ed.), The Labour Market Under New Labour, chapter 12, pages 191-200, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Gregory, Mary & Jukes, Robert, 2001. "Unemployment and Subsequent Earnings: Estimating Scarring among British Men 1984-94," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(475), pages 607-625, November.
    6. Maria Gutierrez Domenech & Brian Bell, 2004. "Female Labour Force Participation In The UK: Evolving Characteristics Or Changing Behaviour?," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2004 18, Royal Economic Society.
    7. Mike Brewer, 2001. "Comparing in-work benefits and the reward to work for families with children in the US and the UK," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 41-77, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chzhen, Yekaterina & Mumford, Karen A. & Nicodemo, Catia, 2012. "The Gender Pay Gap in the Australian Private Sector: Is Selection Relevant across the Wage Distribution?," IZA Discussion Papers 6558, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Maya Rossin‐Slater & Christopher J. Ruhm & Jane Waldfogel, 2013. "The Effects of California's Paid Family Leave Program on Mothers’ Leave‐Taking and Subsequent Labor Market Outcomes," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 224-245, March.
    3. Ilyana Kuziemko & Jessica Pan & Jenny Shen & Ebonya Washington, 2018. "The Mommy Effect: Do women anticipate the employment effects of motherhood?," Working Papers 2018-6, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    4. Yekaterina Chzhen & Karen Mumford & Catia Nicodemo, 2013. "The Gender Pay Gap in the Australian Private Sector: Is Selection Relevant Across the Earnings Distribution?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(286), pages 367-381, September.
    5. Giovanni Razzu & Carl Singleton & Mark Mitchell, 2020. "On why the gender employment gap in Britain has stalled since the early 1990s," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(6), pages 476-501, November.
    6. Mari, Gabriele & Cutuli, Giorgio, 2018. "Do parental leaves make the motherhood wage penalty worse? Assessing two decades of German reforms," SocArXiv f2nrc, Center for Open Science.
    7. Wendy Sigle, 2008. "England and Wales: Stable fertility and pronounced social status differences," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(15), pages 455-502.
    8. Hanel Barbara & Riphahn Regina T., 2012. "The Employment of Mothers – Recent Developments and their Determinants in East and West Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 232(2), pages 146-176, April.
    9. Davia, María A. & Legazpe, Nuria, 2012. "Decisiones laborales de las mujeres casadas o cohabitantes en España/Employment Decisions of Married or Cohabiting Women in Spain," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 1065(22.)-1, Diciembre.
    10. Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2017. "Maternity and Family Leave Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 10500, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Joyce P. Jacobsen, 2009. "Accommodating Families," Chapters, in: Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt & Seth D. Harris & Orly Lobel (ed.), Labor and Employment Law and Economics, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Gabriele Mari & Giorgio Cutuli, 2019. "Do Parental Leaves Make the Motherhood Wage Penalty Worse? Assessing Two Decades of German Reforms," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1025, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    13. Maya Rossin-Slater, 2017. "Maternity and Family Leave Policy," NBER Working Papers 23069, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Wen-Jui Han & Christopher Ruhm & Jane Waldfogel & Elizabeth Washbrook, 2009. "Public Policies and Women's Employment after Childbearing," NBER Working Papers 14660, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Xavier St-Denis & Matissa Hollister, 2024. "Are All the Stable Jobs Gone? The Transformation of the Worker–Firm Relationship and Trends in Job Tenure Duration and Separations in Canada, 1976–2015," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(3), pages 657-683, June.
    16. Joshua D Gottlieb & Richard R Townsend & Ting Xu, 2022. "Does Career Risk Deter Potential Entrepreneurs?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(9), pages 3973-4015.
    17. Benito, Andrew & Bunn, Philip, 2011. "Understanding labour force participation in the United Kingdom," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 51(1), pages 36-42.
    18. Xavier St‐Denis & Matissa Hollister, 2023. "Two paths towards job instability: Comparing changes in the distribution of job tenure duration in the United Kingdom and Germany, 1984–2014," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 723-751, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    married womens employment; maternity policies;

    JEL classification:

    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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