Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper provides the first estimates of the motherhood wage gap for U.S. immigrant women. Women’s wages have been found to decrease non-incrementally with additional children and the gap has been found to vary by demographic group. We estimate the gap for immigrant women with 58 broad and specific self reported ancestries. We find that the motherhood wage gap for immigrant women is similar in structure to that for native women and ranges from 2 to 8 percent among immigrant women with 1 to 4 or more children compared to a range of 4 to 15 percent for native women. The size of the gap varies by immigrant women’s ancestry. Canadian, Italian and German immigrant women have higher motherhood wage gaps than U.S. native women while gaps do not appear to exist among the largest groups of South Asian immigrant women. Additionally, motherhood wage gaps occur among higher numbers of ancestry groups as number of children increases from 1 to 3. We explore possible connections between the motherhood wage gap and variations in earnings, age and educational attainment by immigrant women’s ancestry and numbers of children

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Getting married and becoming a parent are two of the most universal life transitions throughout history and across societies. Not surprisingly, a large body of literature documents how changes in family structures are associated with individual’s well-being. Although it is well documented how marriage benefits individual’s mental health, the effects of being a parent, however, is less understood. While several studies attempted to assess the relationship between having a child and well-being, their findings are inconsistent. The current study explores how being a parent is associated with women’s psychological well-being over the life course to address these discrepancies. Additionally, we also estimate the long term effect of age at first birth on well-being to investigate how the association between parental status and well-being varies by the timing of transition to parenthood. Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 Cohort, our results indicate that parents are more likely to suffer from depression than those who are childless during young adulthood. However, having a child is no longer to be detrimental in mid life. We also found that the association between parenthood and well-being also varies by mother’s age at first birth. We discuss implications of the results and acknowledge research limitations.

Supporting Publications:
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Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Some feminists suggest that part-time work may be a way for some women to bridge the work-family divide. Through in-depth interviews with mothers who are employed part-time in professional occupations, this paper considers how part-time work challenges traditional workplace norms. Preliminary findings are mixed. First, by setting specific work hours, part-time work challenges the boundary-less hours that organizations have come to expect. Second, part-time working mothers feel more productive as part-timers than they were as full-timers illustrating that work can be accomplished outside of traditional work schedules. Finally, as mothers try to be successful part-time employees, they make attempts to downplay their part-time status, which leaves the workplace fairly unaltered.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Survey research finds that mothers suffer a substantial per-child wage penalty that is not explained by human capital or occupational factors (Budig and England 2001). Despite clear documentation of this pattern, the causal mechanism producing it remains elusive because existing research has not been able to distinguish between productivity and discrimination explanations for the motherhood wage penalty. Drawing on status characteristics theory and the literature on the cultural contradictions of motherhood, we suggest that status-based discrimination may be an important factor. To evaluate this argument, we conducted a laboratory experiment in which participants evaluated application materials for a pair of same race, same gender, ostensibly real job applicants who were equally qualified but differed on parental status. The results strongly support the discrimination hypotheses. Relative to other kinds of applicants, mothers were rated as less competent, less committed, less suitable for hire, promotion, and management training, and deserving of lower salaries. They were also held to a stricter performance standard. Men were not penalized for being a parent and appeared to benefit from having children on some measures. We discuss the implications of these findings for the theory presented and for enduring patterns of gender inequality in paid work.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Using contemporary popular literature on motherhood, in particular memoirs, essays and autobiographies, this paper analyzes the current public discourse on gender and motherhood. The study focuses on prevalent gender conceptualizations, interactions between social structures of reproduction, gender and motherhood, and gendering of motherhood and parenthood in American society. I argue that biological essentialism and motherhood as a gendered social institution are fundamental for reproducing existing gender inequalities, although not for creating them. In the analyzed narratives I find a biological emphasis on the bodily experiences of pregnancy and childbirth and focus on the different nature of men and women in parenting and childcare contribute to the categorical and dichotomous gender conceptualization. The biological differences are though reaffirmed through social practices, and together create the gender essentialism present in the motherhood and gender discourse. The writers of the texts felt mostly unprepared for and ambivalent about the motherhood role; their conflicts about their position as mothers mostly stem from the persistent myth of the “natural” mother and resurfacing of the traditional gender practices they encountered once they became mothers. Motherhood thus changed their social position in the gender structures and remained one of the main elements of gender inequality.