The gender employment gap: the effects of extended maternity leave policy in Viet Nam

Abstract

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How Maternity Leave Affects Female Employment in the UK?

“…For example, while Aisenbrey et al ( 2009) use cross-country data for quantitative analysis and demonstrate the negative impact of extended leave on women's career development, Vu and Glewwe (2022) focus their study on a single country, Vietnam, and conclude that extended the leave duration does not increase the gender employment gap. While some scholars have demonstrated that ML can induce women to enter the labour market (Hanel, 2012), others have argued that because of ML, employers may be reluctant to hire women who have children or who intend to have them soon (Le and Pham, 2021). Similar differences also appear in the literature related to women's economic treatment, gender norms, and employment choices (see Table 2).…”

“…Furthermore, when employers are required to pay wages or other financial benefits during women on leave with no or little government contribution (Karshenas et al, 2014), these additional costs all lead to increased employment expenses for women (Del Boca et al, 2008;Low & Sá nchez-Marcos, 2015). Considering the costs associated with ML, employers may be reluctant to hire women who have children or who intend to have them soon (Le and Pham, 2021), this will prevent women from entering the labour market.…”

“…This sense of responsibility is a source of tension, stress and feelings of injustice (Maxwell et al, 2018). Le and Pham (2021) mention that female employees' attitudes in the face of ML were negative as many respondents witnessed their colleagues returning to work after childbirth either being placed in lower paid positions or being dismissed. These psychological pressures may accelerate women's withdrawal from the labour market.…”

“…Employers are reluctant to recruit women who have or plan to have children soon because they fear that their maternity roles may affect the company's costs and performance (Le and Pham, 2021). Le and Pham (2021) similarly mention in their study that although ML emphasise women's rights to return to work after childbirth, many respondents witnessed their colleagues returning to work after giving birth and receiving lowerpaid positions or dismissals.…”

“…Chapter 4 contains a description of the research methodology while Chapter 5 will respond to each of the hypotheses. The studies of Uribe et al (2019) informed the research methodology of this paper, as well as Le and Pham (2021) and Vu and Glewwe (2022). The effect of ML on female employment is explored by contrasting the data before and after the implementation of the 2006 Act on the groups more affected by the law (the treatment group) and the group comparatively untouched by the law (the control group).…”