Wages and employment chances for women: the role of expected and actual fertility

Motherhood is often associated with reduced labour market prospects. However, any ‘motherhood\r\npenalty’ may reflect selection effects as well as direct causal effects of having children. We extend\r\nthe discussion to look at how intentions towards future fertility – and whether they are realised –\r\naffect labour market chances for women (employment participation opportunities and wages). We\r\nexamine high quality UK longitudinal micro-data from the British Household Panel Survey covering\r\neighteen years (1991-2009), using Heckman selection models with full maximum likelihood.\r\nWe find that expectations toward fertility, in addition to actual fertility, affect the prospects of remaining\r\nin paid work. Plans concerning children, and their outcomes, affect the labour market\r\nchances of women and this might be due both to inequality taking place within the home and in\r\nthe workplace. Analysis of expected fertility provides some insights into whether having children is\r\nitself the causal factor in labour market prospects of women.