Learning from Mum: Cross-National Evidence Linking Maternal Employment and Adult Children’s Outcomes

Abstract

Analyses relying on two international surveys from over 100,000 men and women across 29 countries explore the relationship between maternal employment and adult daughters' and sons' employment and domestic outcomes. In the employment sphere, adult daughters, but not sons, of employed mothers are more likely to be employed and, if employed, are more likely to hold supervisory responsibility, work more hours and earn higher incomes than their peers whose mothers were not employed. In the domestic sphere, sons raised by employed mothers spend more time caring for family members and daughters spend less time on housework. Analyses provide evidence for two mechanisms: gender attitudes and social learning. Finally, findings show contextual influences at the family and societal levels: family-of-origin social class moderates effects of maternal employment and childhood exposure to female employment within society can substitute for the influence of maternal employment on daughters and reinforce its influence on sons.

Residential Mobility Decreases Neural Responses to Social Norm Violation

“…The findings of the present study suggest that studying the effect of residential mobility on social cognition would allow gender differences to be taken into account. Changes in social cognition and social status might be passed to the next generation by interaction among family members (McGinn et al, 2018; Tuccio and Wahba, 2018). Females play a significant role in influencing the values and perspectives of children due to their responsibility to teach and raise the next generations, especially in the context of traditional Chinese culture (King and Bond, 1985).…”

Taxation for gender equality: Proposal of measures for the Republic of Serbia on the road to European integration

“…Republika Srbija je usvojila obavezu rodno odgovornog budžetiranja još 2015. godine, čime je obavezala sve budžetske korisnike da počnu da vrše rodnu analizu, međutim, i dalje je potrebno raditi na njenoj boljoj primeni. 21 18 Najpoznatiji primer indirektne diskriminacije žena u poreskim zakonima predstavlja neadekvatno regulisano oporezivanje zajedničkog dohotka muža i žene, odnosno porodice, umesto pojedinačnog oporezivanja svakog pojedinca. Neke od analiza ukazale su na efekte koje pojedini poreski oblici imaju na položaj žena.…”

“Good Mothers Work”: How Maternal Employment Shapes Women's Expectation of Work and Family in Contemporary Urban China

“…Extensive research has examined how women navigate the competing demands of work and family (e.g., Blair‐Loy, 2003; Gerson, 1986; Hays, 1996; Hochschild, 1989; Stone, 2007). Scholars are interested in how motherhood affects women's earnings and continued employment (e.g., Benard & Correll, 2010; Budig & England, 2001; Correll, Benard, & Paik, 2007; Shen & Jiang, 2020), and how maternal employment, in turn, impacts young and adolescent children's wellbeing (e.g., Bianchi, 2000; Desai & Jain, 1994; Dustmann & Schönberg, 2012; Goldberg, Prause, Lucas‐Thompson, & Himsel, 2008; Lucas‐Thompson, Goldberg, & Prause, 2010; McGinn, Ruiz Castro, & Lingo, 2019; Parcel & Menaghan, 1994; Short, Chen, Entwisle, & Zhai, 2002).…”

“…But beyond childhood and adolescence, does maternal employment, that is, women's paid work during children's childhood years, still matter for individuals’ adulthood lives? A growing body of literature now turns to the link between maternal employment and children's adulthood outcomes (see McGinn et al., 2019). Finding a generally positive association between maternal employment and adult children's employment probability, income, and equitable division of housework (e.g., Cunningham, 2001; Fernández, Fogli, & Olivetti, 2004; Gupta, 2006; McGinn et al., 2019; Stinson & Gottschalk, 2016), researchers draw on two intrafamily mechanisms as possible explanations: Maternal employment affects children's adulthood behavior and outcomes by shaping children's gender‐related attitudes (Moen, Erickson, & Dempster‐McClain, 1997) and by providing behavioral examples (Bandura, 1977; McGinn et al., 2019).…”

“…First, current studies on the effects of maternal employment have largely relied on quantitative analysis of survey data, operationalizing children's adulthood outcomes as a limited set of quantifiable measures. As women's choices surrounding paid work face frequent scrutiny and are fraught with moral connotations (Damaske, 2011; McGinn et al., 2019; Scott & Clery, 2013; Williams, 1991), it is important to gather richer narratives that will allow women to explain, in their own words, how having employed mothers may shape children's work–family belief, ideation, and decision‐making process in adulthoods.…”