Is It Daddy Time Yet? Trends in Men's Employment Hours around the Time of A Childbirth from 1989 to 2020

Abstract

Parenthood often is a turning point that produces within-family inequalities between men and women. Women’s employment is usually disrupted by motherhood while men’s do not appear to change their labor market behaviors as they transition into fatherhood, leading many scholars to conclude that the gender revolution has stalled. Other scholars argued that “Part II” of the gender revolution is emerging, as marked by men’s increased participation in household labor. Using longitudinally linked monthly data from the Current Population Survey 1989-2020, I find evidence supporting the Part II of the gender revolution perspective. Fathers from more recent cohorts are working fewer hours around the time of a new childbirth compared with earlier cohorts. This cohort change is also larger among college educated men, men with a college educated partner, and men in dual-earner households. This work contributes to our understanding of the changing role of family and childcare in men’s formal employment.