Does signaling childcare support on job applications reduce the motherhood penalty?

Abstract

There is substantial evidence that due to perceived childcare obligations, mothers are disadvantaged in labor markets. To what extent can childcare support ameliorate such a disadvantage? To answer this question, we ran a CV experiment in a large Indian city and examined whether indicating access to childcare support in a CV may offset the motherhood penalty associated with labor market entry. We randomly varied motherhood, as well as access to childcare in CVs sent to online applications for service sector jobs in Delhi. Indicating motherhood on a CV led to a 57% or 20 percentage point reduction in callback rates for interviews as compared to non-mothers. A simple indication of access to childcare support offsets the motherhood penalty by 20% or 4 percentage points. We interpret the findings in the Indian context and with respect to potential sources of discrimination.

The Long-term Consequences of Fertility on the Elderly’s Labor Supply

“…And the linkage between fertility and labor supply has important policy implications. Previous literature on the effect of fertility on labor market outcomes, in general, nd a negative effect for female -motherhood penalty, and a positive effect for male -breadwinner bonus (Angrist and Evans, 1996;Bedi, et Wu, 2022). But these studies focus on the effects for adults of childbearing age.…”

Women in STEM in India: Understanding Challenges through Social Constructionist Perspective

“…Such structures are required for two reasons: (1) for a better work-life balance for women (and men) and (2) for creating a socio-psychological climate in which it might be assumed by the recruiters and senior colleagues that women can take care of family (since gendered role assumptions will not change easily). A study using fictitious CVs in two industry sectors in Delhi found that indicating access to childcare in job applications partially reduces motherhood penalty (Bedi et al, 2021).…”