The adverse impact of childbirth on a mother’s employment earnings for a decade has been substantiated by a recent study conducted by the University of Queensland.
Scholars associated with the university’s Life Course Center leveraged data gleaned from the Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to probe the impact of parenthood on earnings over a timeline that encompassed a 10-year period both pre and post-birth of a child.
Motherhood penalty
In a departure from prior research that pointed to an instantaneous “motherhood penalty” on women’s earnings, the latest study represents one of the initial attempts to scrutinize the extended earnings trajectory of households as they navigate the process of becoming parents, as per the researchers.
“We know that parenthood is a key contributor to loss of earnings for women, but we did not know whether or at what point women started to regain their lost earnings,” the researchers explain.
“While there is an expectation over the long term that couples will gradually return to pre-parenthood earnings arrangements, our study results do not support this.
“Parenthood affects men and women differently and the gender gap in earnings is still evident up to 10 years after the first birth.”
Breadwinning
The study reveals a marked uptick in the proportion of households with male breadwinners after the onset of parenthood, which has yet to recede to pre-parenthood levels even a decade later.
Furthermore, there is a conspicuous decline in the prevalence of households with equal earnings. In contrast, the number of female-breadwinner households evinces relatively stable patterns from the pre-parenthood phase to the post-parenthood period.
“Our study confirms that parenthood entrenches the male-breadwinner model, but it also shows that there are some couples who make it work with a female breadwinner and we can learn from those households,” the researchers explain.
“Current policy mainly focuses on supporting women after the birth of a child, but our research suggests that improving women’s earnings prior to giving birth can also help improve equality.”
