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Title: Motherhood: A Burden on a Woman’s Career
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2016
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Abstract: This paper examines the role that having children, getting married, and educational attainment level play in affecting a women’s earnings and therefore her career by using five different econometric regression models. Data from IPUMS-CPS of June of 1990 and 1995 was used, and the results show that a woman does suffer a wage penalty due to motherhood. Not accounting for other variables, a one-year motherhood delay among women with a college degree increases her weekly earnings by $7.11. For women with no bachelor’s degree, a one-year increase in motherhood delay will increase her weekly earnings by $4.99. This leads us to conclude that college-educated mothers do not experience such a high wage penalty for having children than women who didn’t pursue a college degree, hence a positive relationship exists between a woman’s education level and her earnings. Similar to what Baxter et. al concluded in their study, this paper found little or no correlation between marriage delay and a women’s earnings. A possible explanation to this is that marriage does not usually imply childbearing for many women who have less liberal views on gender roles (Blount et. al, 2007). More black respondents in this study were single than white ones, which could motivate black women to be in the labor force for longer periods of time and served as a possible explanation as to why black mothers experience a lower wage penalty after childbearing than white ones. Earnings are also influenced by region, since the presence and quality of educational institutions and job opportunities vary from region to region. This may affect the education levels that women pursue as well as the job and industry that they work at, which can therefore influence their childbearing decisions and the effect of these in her career (Blount et. al, 2007).
Url: https://sites.bu.edu/uea/files/2018/01/Mariana-Villa-data-analysis-writing-sample.pdf
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Authors: Villa, Mariana
Publisher: Boston University
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Family and Marriage, Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure
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