Mothers' Employment Participation: The Role of Partner Involvement and Selection Processes

Abstract

Objective This paper examines how a couple's division of housework and child care affects mothers' postnatal work hours, taking into account selection processes. Background Past research on mothers' employment suggests that male partners' involvement in domestic work is positively associated with mothers' employment participation. However, it is unknown to what extent this association is driven by selection processes, rather than partner behavior. This paper examines whether selection processes may jointly determine a couple's division of domestic work and a mother's postnatal work hours, and therefore account for the relationship between partner involvement in domestic work and a mother's work hours. Method Using data from the 1991 to 2008 waves of the British Household Panel, this study employs structural equation modeling and fixed effects regression. The analyses account for multiple characteristics that may determine women's selection into egalitarian work–family arrangements. Results The findings show that selection effects do indeed play a role: The male partner's involvement in housework and child care does not significantly affect most mothers' postnatal work hours when selection effects are taken into account. Only mothers who are highly disadvantaged on the labor market—those with low income and educational attainment—benefit from the partner's involvement in child care, but not housework, in terms of their postnatal employment. Conclusion Mothers who are strongly disadvantaged on the labor market benefit most from family policies that encourage their partner's involvement in child care.

Do Highly Educated Daughters of Immigrants Return to Work After Childbirth? Evidence From Descendants of Pakistani and Vietnamese Immigrants in Norway

“…An important limitation of human capital theory is that it rests on the premise of rational choice and ignores socio-cultural factors and women's non-economic preferences (Ingenfeld 2021). It disregards that real-life choices are influenced by norms, attitudes and values formed in a specific cultural environment (Greenman 2011).…”

Fertility‐based employment discrimination and family policy: Evidence from a field experiment

“…Not all family policies ensure gender equality and distribute family responsibilities evenly between women and men (Plomien, 2009). Even when societies have introduced parental leave policies, couples often decide to maintain the traditional status quo when it comes to gender roles, thereby offsetting any attempts to equalise the family obligations of men and women (Baird & O'Brien, 2015; Ingenfeld, 2021; Rao, 2021). This study, therefore, uses maternity leave policy as a proxy for the generosity of a family policy because it focuses only on women's obligations and the benefits of childbearing.…”