Stratification of post-birth labour supply in a high- and low- maternal employment regime

Bibliographic Data

ID11679751
AuthorsAndreas Filser (0000-0001-5530-3621, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung), Pascal Achard (Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique), Corinna Frodermann (0000-0003-2374-8962, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung), Dana Müller (0009-0009-4350-363X, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung), Sander Wagner (0000-0002-1294-1612, Leverhulme Trust, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume102
Pages101133-101133
Publication date2026-02-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueResearch in Social Stratification and Mobility (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0276-5624 • E-ISSN: 1878-5654
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.rssm.2026.101133
OpenAlexW7128365472
LanguageEN
References cited79

This paper compares the magnitude and stratification of motherhood employment penalties in France and Germany, two countries with contrasting institutional orientations towards maternal employment. While prior research has documented cross-national variation in the size of motherhood penalties, less is known about how macro-level contexts shape their stratification across socioeconomic groups. Using harmonized administrative employment data on 18,948 French and 72,632 German mothers, who were employed prior to first birth between 1997 and 2014, we estimate labour market participation trajectories for five years following childbirth. Across both countries, women with higher pre-birth income, higher education, and employment in higher-wage firms experience substantially smaller reductions in labour supply, with income emerging as the strongest stratifying dimension. Motherhood penalties are markedly smaller in France, amounting to less than one-third of the reduction observed in Germany. Yet penalties in France are more strongly stratified: mothers in the lowest income quintile experience participation losses 3.14 times larger than mothers in the highest quintile, compared to a ratio of 1.17 in Germany. Within Germany, East German mothers face smaller but more stratified penalties than West German mothers. Finally, we test whether the macro-level pattern of larger penalties associated with weaker stratification also generalizes to 65 NUTS-2 regions. We find no systematic association between the size and stratification of motherhood penalties at the regional level. The findings suggest that institutional contexts supporting high maternal employment reduce overall penalties but pose particular challenges for mothers from lower socio-economic backgrounds who reintegrate less rapidly into the labour market

German · Labour supply · Regional variation · Social stratification · Socioeconomic status · Stratification (seeds · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Work-Family Balance Challenges

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