Origin, norms, and the motherhood penalty

Olof Åslund (), Arizo Karimi and Anton Sundberg
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Olof Åslund: Uppsala University, Uppsala Center for Labor Studies (UCLS), the Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy (IFAU), IZA, CReAM
Arizo Karimi: Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU
Anton Sundberg: Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU

No 2025:1, Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy

Abstract: We present evidence that shared institutional and economic contexts may be at least as im portant as culturally rooted gender equality norms for the size of the motherhood penalty. Our study covers child migrants and children of immigrants in Sweden, and while the results point to a moderate but statistically robust negative association between source country gender equality and the labor market impact of motherhood, the overall picture is more one of similarity across highly diverse groups. All groups of mothers exhibit qual itatively comparable labor market trajectories following first childbirth, but penalties are somewhat greater among those descending from the most gender unequal societies.

Keywords: Motherhood penalty; Cultural norms; Earnings inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J15 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2025-02-20
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