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Author: Zhuo, Xiaolin
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Killewald, Alexandra
Zhuo, Xiaolin
Mothers' Long-Term Employment Patterns
Presented: Chicago IL, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2015
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Employment, Part-Time; Life Course; Maternal Employment; Racial Differences

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Previous research on maternal employment has disproportionately focused on the experiences of married, college-educated mothers and examined either current employment status or return to work immediately following a birth. Drawing on the life course perspective, we instead conceptualize maternal careers as long-term life course patterns. Using data from the NLSY79 and optimal matching, we document five common employment patterns of American mothers over the first 18 years of maternity. About 60% experience either steady, full-time employment (41%) or steady nonemployment (20%). The rest experience "mixed" patterns: long-term part-time employment (14%), or a long period of nonemployment following maternity, then a return to employment approximately 6 (15%) or 12 (10%) years following the first birth. We find that consistent employment following maternity, either full-time or part-time, is characteristic of women with more economic advantages, while women who experience low levels of employment disproportionately lack a high school degree and are more likely to be Hispanic. Consistent part-time labor is distinctive to white women: Hispanic and African American women are underrepresented in this group compared to either consistent full-time employment or long-term nonemployment. Furthermore, race is one of the only predictors of whether a mother is employed consistently full-time versus part-time. Our results support the importance of studying maternal employment across the economic spectrum, considering motherhood as a long-term characteristic, and moving away from research approaches that consider employment as a binary or continuous measure and overlook the qualitative distinctness of particular employment patterns.
Bibliography Citation
Killewald, Alexandra and Xiaolin Zhuo. "Mothers' Long-Term Employment Patterns." Presented: Chicago IL, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2015.
2. Killewald, Alexandra
Zhuo, Xiaolin
U.S. Mothers' Long-Term Employment Patterns
Demography 56,1 (February 2019): 285-320.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-018-0745-9
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Employment, Part-Time; Labor Force Participation; Maternal Employment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Previous research on maternal employment has disproportionately focused on the immediate postpartum period and typically modeled either cross-sectional employment status or time until a specific employment transition. We instead conceptualize maternal employment as a long-term pattern, extending the observation window and embedding employment statuses in temporal context. Using data from NLSY79 and sequence analysis, we document five common employment patterns of American mothers over the first 18 years of maternity. Three typical patterns revolve around a single employment status: full-time (36 %), part-time (13 %), or nonemployment (21 %); the other two patterns are characterized by 6 (15 %) or 11 (14 %) years of nonemployment, followed by a period of transition and then full-time employment. Analyses of the immediate postpartum period cannot distinguish between the nonemployment and reentry groups, which have different employment experiences and different prematernity characteristics. Next, we describe how mothers' human capital, attitudes and cultural models, family experiences, and race/ethnicity are associated with the employment patterns they follow, elucidating that these characteristics may be associated not only with how much mothers work but also the patterning of their employment. Our results support studying maternal employment as a long-term pattern and employing research approaches that address the qualitative distinctness of these diverse patterns.
Bibliography Citation
Killewald, Alexandra and Xiaolin Zhuo. "U.S. Mothers' Long-Term Employment Patterns." Demography 56,1 (February 2019): 285-320.