The Unequal Motherhood Penalty: Maternal Preferences and Education

Lauro Carnicelli and Greta Morando ()
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Greta Morando: University of Sheffield

No 18140, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study how maternal preferences interact with education to shape the motherhood penalty. Using rich Finnish registry data and the quasi-random gender of the firstborn child, we show that mothers across education groups display a mild preference for daughters, reflected in their fertility and parental leave choices. Yet this shared preference translates into divergent long-run outcomes. Ten years after birth, highly educated mothers face a 10\% larger earnings penalty if their firstborn is a son, whereas less educated mothers experience slightly higher penalties with daughters. These differences stem from distinct labor market adjustments: less educated mothers are marginally more likely to exit employment after having a daughter, while highly educated mothers with daughters disproportionately move into public-sector jobs, which offer a relative wage premium. Our findings demonstrate that similar parental preferences can generate contrasting long-term earnings dynamics across education groups, highlighting the role of maternal preferences and labor market sorting in shaping the motherhood penalty.

Keywords: parental preferences; gender wage gap; child penalty; occupational sorting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J16 J24 J42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-gen and nep-lab
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