PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether the social divisions in maternal employment patterns post‐childbirth, recorded by earlier studies have persisted for a later cohort of mothers that had a pregnancy in the early 2000s, in the context of an expansion of childcare and other improvements in reconciliation measures.Design/methodology/approachLongitudinal data from the UK's Millennium Cohort Study are analysed using logistic regression.FindingsIt was found that mothers are more likely to be employed, and employed full‐time, when their child is aged three if they were employed during the pregnancy and resumed employment within nine months of the birth. The mothers' occupational class, ethnicity, household composition and the working hours of a partner also have independent associations with the probability of maternal employment once the child is aged three.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors would expect these results to be modified – but not overturned – in a different national setting, for example where childcare services are more extensive or part‐time employment is less common.Originality/valueThese new longitudinal survey results for a recent cohort of mothers in the UK demonstrate that resumption of employment following maternity leave is pivotal for women's subsequent employment integration. Yet maternal employment trajectories remain shaped by social inequalities. Both results are important for informing debates about reconciliation policy for the pre‐school years, including monitoring the impact of the recession on the employment integration of women following childbirth.
Establishing a clear definition of ‘paternal involvement’ is important in light of debates about what the concept means and how it might be measured. The debates about how to conceptualise ‘paternal involvement’ in childcare are reviewed in the first section of this article. I demonstrate how Lamb et al’s (1987) three dimensions of paternal involvement – accessibility, engagement and responsibility – continue to provide a comprehensive way of summarising a plethora of parental activities that are not bound by time, locality or age of child. The second section of this article discusses some of the key policy, workplace and individual factors that interact to shape and influence the three dimensions of involvement. Using Sen’s (1992) capabilities framework, I argue that while fathers may have the motivation and desire to be an involved parent, structural and individual factors often hinder their capabilities to be involved.
Understanding the conditions that facilitate mothers’ employment and fathers’ involvement in childcare and housework is important for achieving gender equity in paid and unpaid work. Using Sen’s capabilities framework, the article explores the effect of paternal involvement in childcare on mothers’ employment resumption nine months and three years’ post-childbirth. Logistic regression is used on the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study. Results show that the probability of mothers resuming employment increase at both time points if the father is more involved in childcare nine months post-birth – and in some cases, this is more important for her employment resumption than her occupational class and the number of hours the father spends in paid work. However, attitudes have an even stronger effect, and appear to drive behaviour, as the probability of mothers resuming employment increase significantly three years post-birth if either parent endorses more gender egalitarian roles in the first year of parenthood.
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