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Title: Women's Employment During Pregnancy and Following Birth
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Leibowitz, Arleen A.
Klerman, Jacob Alex
Waite, Linda J.
Women's Employment During Pregnancy and Following Birth
Report No. NLS 92-11, Washington DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics, February 1992.
Also: http://stats.bls.gov/ore/abstract/nl/nl920010.htm
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Childbearing; Employment; First Birth; Labor Force Participation; Maternal Employment; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Women; Work Histories

During the last three decades, the "working mother" has become the norm rather than a rarity. In 1960, fewer than one in five mothers with children under age six (18.6 percent) were in the labor force. By 1987, this percentage had tripled, reaching 57 percent. Current participation levels for mothers of younger children are even more striking. Fifty-three percent of married mothers with children 1 year old or under are in the labor force Previous research has consistently found that women with young children are less likely to participate in the labor force than those with only older children. Today labor force activity reaches high levels soon after the birth of a child, and many women interrupt work for only short periods of time. Although half the new mothers have returned to work within a year after giving birth, the factors that affect the timing within that year are not well understood. Similarly, the factors that influence how long women work during their pregnanc ies have not been fully explored. The analysis of women's increased work effort during pregnancy and rapid return to work after childbirth call for a research strategy using data that can distinguish among work patterns by month of return to work rather than by year. This paper uses panel data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLS-Y) to examine whether perinatal labor supply is positively related to women's real wages. We also expect to find a negative relation between mothers' work efforts and other household income.
Bibliography Citation
Leibowitz, Arleen A., Jacob Alex Klerman and Linda J. Waite. "Women's Employment During Pregnancy and Following Birth." Report No. NLS 92-11, Washington DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics, February 1992.