Gendered Parenthood-Employment Gaps from Midlife: A Demographic Perspective Across Three Different Welfare Systems

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Economics
• Demography

Background:

• Despite increased female labor force participation in Western nations, significant gender employment gaps persist, particularly for parents.
• Parenthood's long-term impact on employment trajectories, especially beyond childbearing years, requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To comparatively analyze women's and men's midlife employment trajectories (ages 40-74) by parental status (parity) and education.
• To examine the influence of national context (Finland, Italy, USA) on gendered parenthood-employment gaps.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multistate incidence-based life tables to decompose years lived into employment, joblessness, and retirement.
• Employed a novel comparative approach across three distinct countries: Finland, Italy, and the USA.

Main Results:

• Significant cross-national variation in employment years and gender gaps was observed, heavily influenced by education levels.
• In Finland, employment increased with parity for both genders, showing a small gender gap. The USA exhibited a flatter parity-employment relationship, with a gap emerging for mothers of two or more children. Italy showed a sharp decrease in women's employment with increased parity, contrasting with men's increase.
• Highly educated mothers experienced smaller gender gaps compared to less educated mothers in the USA and Italy. Childless individuals' employment trajectories varied considerably across countries.

Conclusions:

• Education is a critical factor in mitigating gender employment gaps related to parenthood across different national contexts.
• National policies and cultural norms significantly shape the long-term employment consequences of parenthood for women and men.