IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/cepdps/dp0596.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0596.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mike Brewer & Paul Gregg, 2001. "Eradicating child poverty in Britain: welfare reform and children since 1997," IFS Working Papers W01/08, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    2. Gregg, Paul & Tominey, Emma, 2005. "The wage scar from male youth unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 487-509, August.
    3. Boheim, Rene & Taylor, Mark P., 2002. "The search for success: do the unemployed find stable employment?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(6), pages 717-735, December.
    4. Rannenberg, Ansgar, 2009. "The Taylor Principle and (In-) Determinacy in a New Keynesian Model with hiring Frictions and Skill Loss," SIRE Discussion Papers 2009-48, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    5. Knight, John & Li, Shi, 2006. "Unemployment duration and earnings of re-employed workers in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 103-119.
    6. Stephen Nickell & Jumana Saleheen, 2008. "The impact of immigration on occupational wages: evidence from Britain," Working Papers 08-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    7. Gianni De Fraja & Sara Lemos & James Rockey, 2021. "The Wounds That Do Not Heal: The Lifetime Scar of Youth Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(352), pages 896-941, October.
    8. Mattia Filomena, 2021. "Unemployment Scarring Effects: A Symposium On Empirical Literature," Working Papers 453, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    9. Amélie Speiser, 2021. "Back to work: the effect of a long-term career interruption on subsequent wages in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 157(1), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Jo Blanden & Stephen Machin, 2013. "Educational Inequality and The Expansion of UK Higher Education," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(5), pages 578-596, November.
    11. Luis Beccaria & Roxana Maurizio & Martin Trombetta & Gustavo Vázquez, 2016. "Una evaluación del efecto scarring en Argentina," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, vol. 77, August.
    12. D'Addio, Anna Cristina & De Greef, Isabelle & Rosholm, Michael, 2002. "Assessing Unemployment Traps in Belgium Using Panel Data Sample Selection Models," IZA Discussion Papers 669, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. John M. Nunley & Adam Pugh & Nicholas Romero & Richard Alan Seals, Jr., 2014. "Unemployment, Underemployment, and Employment Opportunities: Results from a Correspondence Audit of the Labor Market for College Graduates," Auburn Economics Working Paper Series auwp2014-04, Department of Economics, Auburn University.
    14. Richard Blundell & Mike Brewer & Marco Francesconi, 2008. "Job Changes and Hours Changes: Understanding the Path of Labor Supply Adjustment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(3), pages 421-453, July.
    15. Bernard, Andrew & Redding, Stephen & Simpson, Helen & Schott, Peter, 2002. "Factor Price Equalization in the UK?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3523, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Blanchflower, David G. & Bryson, Alex, 2021. "The Economics of Walking About and Predicting Unemployment," GLO Discussion Paper Series 922, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    17. Anna M. Falzoni & Alessandra Venturini & Claudia Villosio, 2007. "Skilled and Unskilled Wage Dynamics in Italy in the ‘90s: Changes in the individual characteristics, institutions, trade and technology," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 61, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    18. Dickson, Matt & Donnelly, Michael & Kameshwara, Kalyan Kumar & Lazetic, Predrag, 2024. "The Scarring Effect of Graduate Underemployment: Evidence from the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 17364, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Andrea Bassanini & Thomas Breda & Eve Caroli & Antoine Rebérioux, 2013. "Working in Family Firms: Paid Less but More Secure? Evidence from French Matched Employer-Employee Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(2), pages 433-466, April.
    20. Maria Gutiérrez‐Domènech, 2005. "Employment Transitions after Motherhood in Spain," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(s1), pages 123-148, December.

    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

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0596. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion-papers/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.