Still Penalized? Parity, Age at First Birth and Women's Income in Later Life

Abstract

Despite policies aimed at decreasing old-age income inequality, such as Social Security and Supplemental Security Income, research consistently finds that later-life poverty is highly concentrated among women. While the early-life economic disadvantages of motherhood are well established, little work has examined whether these disadvantages persist into later life. Life course research consistently demonstrates the relationship between early-life choices and later-life inequality, but few studies have examined whether the reproductive phase of a woman's life is associated with her later-life income. Using data from the 2003 wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women cohort, this research examines whether women's age at first birth and parity are associated with her later-life income within the context of marriage. From a set of multivariate analyses, I find that despite a marginal statistically significant effect, substantively for the women in this cohort the effects of childbearing are not particularly consequential for later-life income. The results suggest that as women age the economic penalties associated with motherhood are less important to financial well-being than are other factors.

Women’s financial well‐being: A systematic literature review and directions for future research

“…The impact of the number of children on financial well‐being may also persist in retirement. A greater number of dependent children decreases the family’s probability of undertaking financial planning for retirement (Turner et al., 1994) and there is a small but significant reduction in women’s retirement income for each additional child (Jokinen‐Gordon, 2012).…”

“…Sole parenting can be materially different once there is an increased level of childcare, household work and financial responsibility (Hook, 2015) in such a way that single mothers evaluate their current finances more negatively (Malone et al., 2010) and face an impact on their annual income that persists until retirement (Jokinen‐Gordon, 2012). Amongst single mothers, there is a subgroup that faces even greater vulnerability—single mothers of children with developmental disabilities, a conjecture that is associated with high costs of necessary treatment and medical assistance and difficulty in balancing employment with routine care of children (Parish & Cloud, 2006; Parish et al., 2012).…”