The long-run impacts of paid maternity leave on height and educational attainment

Le, Kien; Nguyen, My

doi:10.1057/s41599-022-01340-z

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(82 reference statements)

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“…Lucas-Thompson et al ( 183 ) conducted a large meta-analysis of the impact of maternal paid employment on children and found that maternal employment in infancy was associated with reduced scores in formal achievement tests and behavioral problems. Le and Nguyen ( 184 ) used DHS data from 29 countries to explore the impact of increased maternity leave on the height and years of educational attainment of adults born before and after maternity leave improvements. With a sample of nearly 1,000,000 individuals, they found each week increase in paid maternity leave, increased adult height by 0.056 cm and educational attainment by 0.007 years ( 184 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Le and Nguyen ( 184 ) used DHS data from 29 countries to explore the impact of increased maternity leave on the height and years of educational attainment of adults born before and after maternity leave improvements. With a sample of nearly 1,000,000 individuals, they found each week increase in paid maternity leave, increased adult height by 0.056 cm and educational attainment by 0.007 years ( 184 ). In Norway, a beneficial impact of maternity leave on child development was seen in a 2% decline in high school drop-out rates and 5–7% increase in wages at age 30 for individuals born after paid maternity leave was introduced ( 185 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Breastfeeding and infant care as ‘sexed’ care work: reconsideration of the three Rs to enable women’s rights, economic empowerment, nutrition and health

Gribble,

Smith,

Gammeltoft

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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Women’s1 lifelong health and nutrition status is intricately related to their reproductive history, including the number and spacing of their pregnancies and births, and for how long and how intensively they breastfeed their children. In turn, women’s reproductive biology is closely linked to their social roles and situation, including regarding economic disadvantage and disproportionate unpaid work. Recognizing, as well as reducing and redistributing women’s care and domestic work (known as the ‘Three Rs’), is an established framework for addressing women’s inequitable unpaid care work. However, the care work of breastfeeding presents a dilemma, and is even a divisive issue, for advocates of women’s empowerment, because reducing breastfeeding and replacing it with commercial milk formula risks harming women’s and children’s health. It is therefore necessary for the interaction between women’s reproductive biology and infant care role to be recognized in order to support women’s human rights and enable governments to implement economic, employment and other policies to empower women. In this paper, we argue that breastfeeding–like childbirth–is reproductive work that should not be reduced and cannot sensibly be directly redistributed to fathers or others. Rather, we contend that the Three Rs agenda should be reconceptualized to isolate breastfeeding as ‘sexed’ care work that should be supported rather than reduced with action taken to avoid undermining breastfeeding. This means that initiatives toward gender equality should be assessed against their impact on women’s ability to breastfeed. With this reconceptualization, adjustments are also needed to key global economic institutions and national statistical systems to appropriately recognize the value of this work. Additional structural supports such as maternity protection and childcare are needed to ensure that childbearing and breastfeeding do not disadvantage women amidst efforts to reduce gender pay gaps and gender economic inequality. Distinct policy interventions are also required to facilitate fathers’ engagement in enabling and supporting breastfeeding through sharing the other unpaid care work associated with parents’ time-consuming care responsibilities, for both infants and young children and related household work.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breastfeeding and infant care as ‘sexed’ care work: reconsideration of the three Rs to enable women’s rights, economic empowerment, nutrition and health

Gribble,

Smith,

Gammeltoft

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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A Research Note on Maternity Leave and Children's Outcomes: The Case of Parental Teachers

Nguyen

2024

Demography

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This research note examines the long-term effect of female teachers’ longer maternity leave on children's education and disability in Vietnam. Having a child a few months before or just after the summer vacation can increase paid leave for female teachers. Using variation in months of childbirth and applying difference-in-differences with family fixed-effect estimators, I find that female teachers in Vietnam tend to avoid giving birth during summer vacation. In the long run, longer maternity leave is positively associated with their children's education and negatively associated with the probability of child disability.

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Escaping the midway trap: A mixed method study highlighting roadblocks and coping mechanisms of female researchers in Cameroon

Fouda Mbarga,

Tsinda,

Mamiafo

et al. 2024

PLOS Glob Public Health

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Across the world, women make most of the health workforce, but remain underrepresented in academia. This is even worst in Sub-Saharan Africa where women are the least represented as first and last authors in publications, especially in francophone countries. However, there is a lack of data on the reason explaining this inequity. Therefore, we sought to describe challenges which hinder the growth of Cameroonian female researchers and conducted a mixed method study over one year from January 2020 to December 2020. We included Cameroonian female researchers in health. For the quantitative arm, data was collected through an online google questionnaire. In-depth interviews were organized for the qualitative arm. Data was analyzed using python software version 21 for the quantitative arm and content analysis was performed for qualitative data. A total of 119 participants were included in this study. Most participants were aged between 25 and 35 years (72%) and they were Christians (94%). The majority had at least a PhD degree (29.6%) and they came from the West region of Cameroon (34.2%) the Northern regions were grossly underrepresented. More than half of our participants faced issues with balancing career, work, and academia and this is linked to culture. Socioeconomic, sociocultural, institutional, and environmental roadblocks hinder the progress and research productivity of most female researchers. The burden of unpaid maternity leaves, and sexual harassment remains high for most women. The use of English language as lingua Franca is perceived as another barrier for one on two women. However, there are coping strategies adopted by female scientists including the development of soft skills such as self-confidence, determination, and hard work. Extrinsic factors such as global policy, international partnerships, workshops, mentorship, and networking are also supporting women in global health. Gender-based interventions are critical to support women in escaping the midway trap.

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The long-run impacts of paid maternity leave on height and educational attainment

Cited by 3 publications

References 55 publications

Breastfeeding and infant care as ‘sexed’ care work: reconsideration of the three Rs to enable women’s rights, economic empowerment, nutrition and health

Breastfeeding and infant care as ‘sexed’ care work: reconsideration of the three Rs to enable women’s rights, economic empowerment, nutrition and health

A Research Note on Maternity Leave and Children's Outcomes: The Case of Parental Teachers

Escaping the midway trap: A mixed method study highlighting roadblocks and coping mechanisms of female researchers in Cameroon

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