Female Executives and the Motherhood Penalty

Seth Murray, Danielle Sandler and Matthew Staiger

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: Childbirth and subsequent breaks from the labor market are a primary reason why the average earnings of women is lower than that of men. This paper uses linked survey and administrative data from the United States to investigate whether the sex composition of executives at the firm, defined as the top earners, affects the earnings and employment outcomes of new mothers. We begin by documenting that (i) the male-female earnings gap is smaller in industries in which a larger share of executives are women, and (ii) the male-female earnings gap has declined more in industries that have experienced larger increases in the share of executives who are female. Despite these cross-sectional and longitudinal correlations, we find no evidence that the sex composition of the executives at the firm has a causal effect on the childbirth and motherhood penalties that impact women's earnings and employment.

Keywords: motherhood penalty; male-female pay gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 M50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2021-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-gen
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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2021/CES-WP-21-03.pdf First version, 2021 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:21-03

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