Motherhood, Fatherhood, and the Gender Gap in Occupational Authority1

Abstract

Does motherhood diminish women's occupational authority and widen the gender gap among contemporary workers in the U.S.? The current study answers this question using data from the Occupational Information Network and 15 waves of panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (2002–2019). Fixed effects' regressions show that married and unmarried mothers are less likely than their childless peers to have occupational authority. The motherhood penalty is larger for women with two or more children than one child. Men fare differently, as fatherhood is associated with a small increase in married men's likelihood of working in occupations with authority. Fixed effects regressions with individual slopes show that this association for men is not causal. Instead, married men may have additional children in response to an increase in their occupational authority. All told, parenthood widens the gender gap in authority. This study builds on theories of gendered families and gendered organizations to argue that mothers are systematically underrepresented in occupations with high levels of authority. Because people with authority make hiring, promotion, pay, and policy decisions, the underrepresentation of mothers may perpetuate other forms of labor market inequalities.