Women's anticipation of the employment effects of motherhood: Evidence and implications

a column by Ilyana Kuziemko, Jessica Pan, Jenny Shen and Ebonya Washington for VIX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Despite women having surpassed men in earning college degrees, having children later than ever, and accumulating increasing amounts of on-the-job experience, convergence in labour force participation between men and women has stalled.

This column argues that one reason for this is women failing to anticipate the effect that children will have on their careers. The findings also suggest that the employment costs of motherhood have risen unexpectedly, and especially so for educated mothers.

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