In his recent book, Decline and Prosper!, demographic expert Vegard Skirbekk provides an outstanding exploration of the factors underpinning the changes in demographics, and especially fertility, around the world. Skirbekk explains that throughout the world, the cost of raising a child is rising, with this consisting both of direct costs and the opportunity costs for women who so often have to sacrifice their careers after child birth.

This is clearly emphasized by recent Cornell research, which shows the decline in mothers’ earnings after she has her first child. The study shows that after couples have their first child, the mothers’ earnings drop substantially relative to the fathers’, which emphasizes the enduring difficulties in changing aspects of gender equality.

Income fall

The results show a relative drop in the earnings of mothers regardless of their education level, with the researchers suggesting that the Covid pandemic helped to lock in this income imbalance as mothers faced an uneven share of the caring burden, which had a negative impact on their careers.

The research is among the first to examine changes in earnings within families over time, and examined incomes across a 10 year timeframe. The researchers utilized both survey results and also administrative tax records to understand changes in earnings alongside those of education, births, and marriages.

In total, they analyzed changes over about a 30 year period from the 1980s through to the 2000s. While there was a brief time in the 1980s when women became less financially dependent upon their husbands after becoming parents, this was not common.

“The pandemic puts into sharp relief the pitfalls of our fend-for-yourself approach to managing work and family,” the authors conclude. “The pandemic also creates an opening for policymakers to build a stronger “infrastructure of care” and the success of that effort will shape gender inequalities in work and family in the decades to come.”