Motherhood and the Gender Wage Gap

The gender wage gap has been researched extensively; the argument around the wage gap has evolved from not if but why it persists while women in industrialized nations continue to be highly educated and society addresses gender-related issues. Recent research has argued that motherhood is one of the leading causes of gender wage disparity. This presentation aims to take a deeper look at the factors that influence the motherhood wage penalty. An in-depth literature review of academic articles and reports exploring how motherhood negatively impacts a woman’s career was completed. Factors covered include wage penalty due to employer bias, social norms, and discrimination. It was discovered that there is a substantial wage gap between women with children and women without children, even if a woman delays child-rearing until later in her career. This gap was especially pronounced for single mothers when compared to married mothers and single fathers. It was also found that the motherhood wage penalty increases with the number of children that a woman has. The motherhood penalty is a contributing factor to the overall gender wage gap. It was concluded that the reasons for the motherhood wage penalty are multi-faceted, but are faced by women across the world, emphasized by factors that are often out of their control, such as race, social status, and age