Gabriela Zapata Román on The motherhood effect on women's labour trajectories: preliminary results

Gabriela Zapata Román presents at the WIDER Seminar Series on 15 November 2023.

The motherhood effect on women's labour trajectories: preliminary results

Abstract

Considerable evidence, mostly from high-income countries, shows that motherhood negatively affects women's labour market outcomes (Angelov et al., 2016; Berniell et al., 2021; Kleven, Landais and Søgaard, 2019; Kleven, Landais, Posch, et al., 2019) and is an important source of earnings gender inequality (Kleven, Landais and Søgaard, 2019). Using longitudinal and retrospective data from the Survey of Social Protection (EPS Encuesta de Protección Social), which covers over 30 years of employment histories, this paper aims to investigate how motherhood and care work affect women's labour trajectories in Chile. Using the event study approach, I will explore to what extent gender norms and socioeconomic status contribute to the motherhood penalty as well as the factors able to mitigate or exacerbate this penalty, mainly focusing on the role of household characteristics and the load of unpaid care work, to shed light on various underlying mechanisms that may drive participation and earnings impacts.

About the presenter

Gabriela Zapata Román is an Economist with a PhD in Development Policy from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. She is a Researcher at the Max Planck-UCEN Research Group on the Economy and Society of the Faculty of Economics, Government and Communications at Universidad Central de Chile and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester. Previously, she has been a consultant for the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), The World Bank, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU WIDER). Her research interests include the topics of structural transformations and inclusive growth, gender and labour inequalities, inequality of opportunities and intergenerational mobility.

WIDER Seminar Series

The WIDER Seminar Series showcases the latest research on key topics in development economics. It provides a forum for senior and early-career researchers, both in-house and external, to present recent and ongoing work related to UNU-WIDER’s current work programme.

In addition to providing a forum for both academic debate and training, the series presents an opportunity for policy makers and others interested in development to learn about the latest research methods and findings.

The WIDER Seminar Series events take place on Wednesdays. All those interested are invited to register and attend via Zoom or in person.