Occupational autonomy, paid maternity leave and mothers' return to work after childbirth

CRIS SCIENTIFIC SEMINAR 2024-2025

Talk by Camille Portier

Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow, European University Institute (EUI)

Webpage / CV 

The tension between working for pay and caring for young children is crucial to understanding women's employment trajectories, especially in the US with its limited formal support for mothers around childbirth. In this context, occupational characteristics such as autonomy may serve as an important resource for working women to draw upon during the transition to motherhood. 
Consequently, this study formulates and tests a resource substitution hypothesis, examining whether mothers rely more on occupational autonomy to balance work and childrearing when paid maternity leave is unavailable. 

Using data from the first 19 rounds of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97 (N = 1,813) and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET Program), I estimate logistic models and discrete-time event history models to consider the relationship between occupational autonomy, use of paid leave, and whether and when mothers come back to work after childbirth.  

The results highlight the nature of autonomy as a valuable resource in the transition back to work and confirm the resource substitution hypothesis. Mothers in occupations with greater autonomy are not only more likely to return to work after childbirth but also do so more promptly, particularly in the absence of paid leave.

Registration is mandatory, thanks