19 January 2006 - Publication of DWP research report - Newborns and New Schools: Critical Times in Women’s Employment
Research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions sets out findings from research which investigates how and when differences in work behaviour between men and women develop. It focuses on the evolution of gender gaps immediately after childbirth and during the initial years of family development.
This study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies uses two data sources: the first thirteen waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), covering years 1991 to 2003 and five waves of the Families and Children Study (FACS) covering the years 1999 to 2003. Information on all adults from the BHPS was combined with data on families from the FACS to create a large sample of families and a comparison sample containing individuals over all stages of the lifetime, including before, throughout and after family formation.
The key findings are that childbirth and school entry are critical times for women relative to men in terms of: a decline in relative participation level; a reduction in wages; a reduction in weekly hours of work; a movement away from permanent positions; movement away from supervisory positions; and a movement towards working at home.
Men and women are equally likely to be in work prior to having children but this changes after childbirth: for example, the percentage of all women working prior to having children is 82 per cent. Around 50 per cent of all mothers return to work during the first year after a birth and an additional quarter will return within five years after the birth. By eight years after birth, over 10 per cent of mothers have never returned to formal paid work at any point.
The speed of return to work is influenced by many factors. For example, mothers working prior to the birth of a child have shorter absences from the labour market than mothers who were not working, while mothers working full-time prior to the birth have shorter absences compared to those working part-time. Also, when work status prior to the birth is taken into account, mothers with subsequent births return to work quicker than mothers of first-borns.
Other characteristics of mothers returning to work more slowly following birth include non-white mothers, mothers with lower levels of education, mothers without partners or working partners, and women working in the private sector.
School entry is also a time of turnover in labour market participation, with high rates of exit from work for mothers and high rates of entry into work: between the June prior to school entry and the following September, 18 per cent of mothers either moved into or moved out of work.
Findings on maternity leave/pay support previous research: mothers have a tendency to return to work when a period of paid leave ends or when the period of unpaid leave ends if it is longer and the mother can afford to continue beyond the paid period. The report also finds that the duration and generosity of maternity pay will impact on the length of a woman’s absence from work by influencing how long mothers can afford to stay away from work. Meanwhile, the length of maternity leave and the end to rights associated with taking leave may influence some women to return earlier than they otherwise would have done.
The gap between women’s and men’s wages is much greater in the presence of children. The hourly wage for female workers is 91 per cent of that for male workers prior to childbirth, and 67 per cent for mothers relative to fathers with children at home. Relative wages for women decline steadily following the birth of a first child. This stems from the accumulation of several periods of low wage growth for women around the times of childbirth and school entry.
School entry leads to a shift away from using formal childcare. Mothers who only use informal types of childcare just prior to school entry are significantly less likely to be in work after school entry than those using some formal types of care. However, this relationship may not be a causal one as mothers with lower labour market attachment may be more likely to use these types of care.
Notes to editors
- The research was conducted by Dr Gillian Paull and Mr Mike Brewer at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The research was based on the secondary analysis of existing data from the Families and Children Study (FACS) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).
- Newborns and New Schools: Critical Times
in Women’s Employment (report
series number 308) is published on 19 January 2006. A summary and a copy of
the report is available on the DWP website:http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5
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