Are newborns and new schools critical times in women's employment?

Speaker: Gillian Paull (Research Associate, IFS)
Response: Heather Joshi (Director, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education)

How and when do differences in work behaviour between men and women develop? How much does the presence of children explain the gender wage gap? How does motherhood impact on the type of work undertaken by female workers?

Researchers at IFS will present findings from the recent publication 'Newborns and New Schools: Critical Times in Women's Employment?' While men and women are very similar in their employment participation, earnings power and other work characteristics prior to the arrival of children, large discrepancies develop following childbirth and during the initial years of family formation.

Key issues to be discussed include:

• How childbirth impacts on work participation for women; factors influencing how quickly women return to work following birth; and to what degree women remain in work once returned.
• The influence of statutory maternity leave and maternity pay entitlements on the speed of return to work following childbirth.
• Whether a child entering school at age 4 or 5 marks a substantial change in women's employment choices.
• How the gender wage gap relates to children and parenthood.
• Whether children impact on other work characteristics for women, including the propensity to be in supervisory or permanent positions.
• How childcare choices for pre-school children influence future employment behaviour for mothers.

The study uses two data sources: the first thirteen waves from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), covering years 1991 to 2003, and the first five waves from the Families and Children Study (FACS) covering the years 1999 to 2003. Information on all adults from the BHPS is combined with data on families from the FACS to create a large sample of families and a comparison sample containing individuals over all stages of the lifetime, including before, throughout and after family formation.