Has the Rise of Work from Home Reduced the Motherhood Penalty in the Labor Market?

Emma Harrington and Matthew E. Kahn

National Tax Journal, 2026, vol. 79, issue 2, 507 - 527

Abstract: When women become mothers, many step back from the workforce. Could work from home (WFH) mitigate this motherhood penalty, particularly in traditionally family-unfriendly careers? We leverage prepandemic technological changes that increased the feasibility of WFH in some college degrees but not others. In degrees where WFH increased, motherhood gaps in employment narrowed: for every 10 percent increase in WFH, mothers’ employment rates increased by 0.78 percentage points (or 0.94 percent) relative to other women’s. These changes are driven by occupations with inflexible time demands. Panel data show that women who could WFH before childbirth are less likely to exit the workforce.

Date: 2026
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