The Population, Society and Inequality Series presents

"The Motherhood Penalty in Life Course Perspective: Occupational Status Developments in 13 European Countries"
with Matt Huffman and Judith Treas, Professors of Sociology, UC Irvine

May 15, 2012
12:30–1:30 p.m.
Social Science Plaza B, Room 4250

Compared to childless women, mothers are known to be penalized with respect to their wages. Although occupations are implicated in this earnings disadvantage, little attention has been paid to occupational trajectories.  Both supply-side (human capital, occupational adjustment) and demand-side (discrimination) processes have been posed to explain the motherhood penalty.  These theoretical approaches lead to alternative hypothesis regarding occupational change over a career.  Huffman and Treas use fixed effects models with the European Community and Household Panel, which includes thirteen countries and eight time points between 1994 and 2001.  They show that there is no rebound in occupational status after a birth; the motherhood penalty actually increases with time since birth.  Other results are similarly pessimistic about the efficacy of strategies that women typically use to mitigate the negative career consequences of motherhood.
 
This lecture is sponsored by the Center for Demographic and Social Analysis.

For further information, please contact Jayne Lee Yang, jayne.lee@uci.edu.