Woman and mother: double employment penalty?

Abstract

This paper analyzes how females and males modify their labor situation after having a child to reconcile work and family life in Spain. The analysis aims to examine whether the heterogeneity in parents’ employment is explained by gender differences or by differences concerning sociodemographic characteristics, educational and occupational attainment, among others. Using 2019 data from the Spanish Labour Force Survey (SLFS), estimation focus on the differences by gender of four different outcomes: being employed, being part- time worker, having a temporary contract, and working less than 35 hours per week. We improve the national perspective by applying the same approach to the Spanish regions and changing the temporal perspective to a pre-crisis year like 2007. Changes in the employment patterns related to the arrival of children are only present on the females’ labor supply, also anticipated by changes when they get into a couple of relationships.