Women, Work, and Motherhood: Changing Economic Penalties for Motherhood in West Germany after 1945. A Comparative Analysis of Cohorts Born in 1934-1971

Annette Kohlmann, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Stefan Bender, Institute for Employment Research (IAB)
Gerda Neyer, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Stefan Lang, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

This paper deals with the effects of motherhood on women's employment dynamics and economic standing. Our analysis is based on the complete lifetime working- and income histories of a 1% sample of all persons born between 1934 and 1971 and employed in West Germany sometime between 1975 and 1995. We use the records of 130,000 women who were employed before the birth of their first child. We apply a semiparametric hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach simultaneously including and estimating effects of several time scales and further covariates (MCMC techniques). We investigate short-term and long-term economic penalties for motherhood and their changes across birth cohorts. We study the employment histories and income levels before the birth of the first child and examine their effects on the propensity and timing of re-entry into the labor market. We also explore the consequences of the employment interruption for a mother's subsequent income and employment stability.