The motherhood wage penalty: A meta-analysis Cukrowska-Torzewska, Ewa; Matysiak, Anna
Social science research,
May-July 2020, 2020 May - Jul, 2020-05-00, 20200501, Volume:
88-89
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Mothers tend to receive lower wages than comparable childless women. This ‘motherhood wage gap’ has been reported in numerous studies. We summarize the existing empirical evidence on this topic using ...meta-analysis and test for several mechanisms which can be responsible for the persistence of the wage gap. Based on 208 wage effects of having exactly one child and 245 wage effects of the total number of children, we find an average motherhood wage gap of around 3.6–3.8%. While the gaps associated with the total number of children are mostly explained by the loss of mothers' human capital during child-related career breaks, the gaps associated with one child are predominantly driven by mothers' choice of jobs and occupations that pay less. The residual gap is smallest in Nordic countries, where public policies actively support gender equality and reconciliation of work and family, as well as Belgium and France, and largest in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Anglo-Saxon countries.
Based on extensive fieldwork in Calcutta, this book provides the first ethnography of how middle-class women in India understand and experience economic change through transformations of family life. ...It explores their ideas, practices and experiences of marriage, childbirth, reproductive change and their children's education, and addresses the impact that globalization is having on the new middle classes in Asia more generally from a domestic perspective. By focusing on maternity, the book explores subjective understandings of the way intimate relationships and the family are affected by India's liberalization policies and the neo-liberal ideologies that accompany through an analysis of often competing ideologies and multiple practices. And by drawing attention to women's agency as wives, mothers and grandmothers within these new frameworks, Domestic Goddesses discusses the experiences of different age groups affected by these changes. Through a careful analysis of women's narratives, the domestic sphere is shown to represent the key site for the remaking of Indian middle-class citizens in a global world.
Jackie Krasas traces the trajectories of mothers who have lost or ceded custody to an ex-partner. She argues that these noncustodial mothers' experiences should be understood within a greater web of ...gendered social institutions such as employment, education, health care, and legal systems that shapes the meanings of contemporary motherhood in the United States. If motherhood means "being there, " then noncustodial mothers, through their absence, are seen as nonmothers. They are anti-mothers to be reviled. At the very least, these mothers serve as cautionary tales. Still a Mother questions the existence of an objective method for determining custody of children and challenges the "best-interests standard" through a feminist, reproductive justice lens. The stories of noncustodial mothers that Krasas relates shed light on marriage and divorce, caregiving, gender violence, and family court. Unfortunately, much of the contemporary discussion of child custody determination is dominated either by gender-neutral discussions, or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, by the idea that fathers are severely disadvantaged in custody disputes. As a result, the idea that mothers always receive custody has taken on the status of common sense. If this was true, as Krasas affirms, there would be no book to write.
Single motherhood is known to be distressing, and to be associated with poor mental health. However, less is known about the pathways into and out of single motherhood, or about the mental health ...trajectories of single mothers. We used total population registry data on Finnish women who experienced the life events of separation (616,762), widowhood (43,355), or child birth (515,756) during the 1995–2018 period while between the ages of 15–64. Single mothers were compared with women who experienced the same life event, but without becoming a single mother. The results for women who separated showed that among single mothers, there was a substantial increase in antidepressant use at the time of separation, and only a moderate decline after separation. Among women who experienced widowhood, those who had underage children initially had lower antidepressant use than women without children, but this gap narrowed in the post-widowhood period. In addition, single women experienced more unfavorable mental health trajectories than partnered women around the time they gave birth. Re-partnering was associated with more favorable mental health among all groups of single mothers. Given the growing prevalence of single-parent households, our results underscore the need for context-specific interventions to support single mothers’ mental health.
Disillusioned by long hours at home alone and by demands from the older generation, Japanese women are marrying later, resulting in a sharp decline in the Japanese birth rate. Muriel Jolivet ...considers the reasons why Japanese women are finding it increasingly difficult to accept the terms and conditions of motherhood.Japan: The Childless Societyexplores the major factors contributing to maternal malaise in Japan including:* the 'Ten Commandments of the Good Mother'* the changing role of the father* education and careers* nostalgia from older generationsDrawing on extensive interviews with Japanese women and translated into English for the first time, this innovative study examines the implications behind the declining birth rate and looks towards the future of a country that is in danger of becoming a 'childless society'.
Understanding how mothers negotiate the expectations of good motherhood ideology is vital for supporting mothers of children with ASD. This paper explored how Chinese mothers of children with ASD ...constructed the concept of good motherhood, and how this construct was formed, resisted and negotiated in the reality of caregiving.
In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 mothers, revealing three major themes: (1) negotiating the role expectation of a super mother; (2) negotiating the emotional expectation of a rational mother; and (3) negotiating the moral expectation of a selfless mother.
Findings indicate that when caring for children with ASD, mothers were expected to assume multiple roles responsibilities, perform emotion work and sacrifice their own needs to become good mothers. Instead of simply conforming to the good motherhood ideology, mothers employed various strategies to reflect on and even resist these expectations. Through these efforts, mothers actively constructed their own perceptions of good mothering based on their individual experiences, contributing to diverse knowledge of motherhood.
The findings underscore the importance of future support services to acknowledge the agency of mothers of children with ASD and utilize empowering approaches to accommodate their comprehensive needs.
•Mothers of children with ASD were expected to play multiple roles, manage negative emotions and sacrifice their own needs.•Mothers employed various strategies to reflect on and even resist the expectations of good motherhood.•Mothers actively constructed their own perceptions of good mothering based on their individual experiences.•Mothers from low-income families or those with limited family support are more vulnerable.•This study contributes to a more diverse understanding of maternal experiences in the context of ASD.
Emotion regulation in parenthood Rutherford, Helena J.V.; Wallace, Norah S.; Laurent, Heidemarie K. ...
Developmental review,
06/2015, Volume:
36
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
•Emotion regulation (ER) is a critical faculty of parenthood.•ER is important for both parent and child development.•Changes in neurophysiology and psychology may facilitate parental ER.•Parental ER ...is an important area for experimental and clinical research.
Emotion regulation, defined as the capacity to influence one's experience and expression of emotion, is a complex skill now recognized to evolve throughout the lifetime. Here we examine the role of emotion regulation in parenthood, and propose that regulatory function during this period is distinct from the emotion regulation skills acquired and implemented during other periods of life. In this review, we consider the unique demands of caring for a child and recognize that parents have to maintain a regulated state as well as facilitate regulation in their child, especially early in development. We examine neurobiological, hormonal and behavioral shifts during the transition to parenthood that may facilitate parental regulation in response to infant cues. Furthermore, we consider how parents shape emotion regulation in their child, and the clinical implications of regulatory functioning within the parent–child relationship.
PDF
