Reproducing Occupational Inequality: Motherhood and Occupational Segregation

This paper examines how motherhood is associated with occupational segregation, paying careful attention to how motherhood affects labor force withdrawal in ways that may obscure its relevance for occupational segregation. Using data on eleven countries from the Luxembourg Income Study (2000–2007), we find that mothers are more likely than childless women to be out of the labor force and both over-and under-represented in certain occupations. Variation in mothers’ occupational segregation across countries is consistent with expectations derived from theoretical arguments about how states reconcile, or fail to reconcile, women’s employment and motherhood.