The gendered impact of parenthood on job-related training participation in Germany and the United Kingdom

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

May 3, 2024

Summary:

Recent studies highlight the role of parenthood in perpetuating persistent gender inequality in the labour market. We examine whether the transition to parenthood influences job-related training participation. This study uses fixed-effects models and longitudinal data from the German National Educational Panel Study (starting cohort 6, 2010–2021) and Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (2010–2019). Our findings show that women’s job-related training participation decreases following parenthood in both countries, but that this decline is steeper in Germany and persists beyond the early stage of parenthood. Furthermore, our mediation analysis shows that parental leave is one of the main drivers of the motherhood penalty in job-related training in both countries. In contrast, when men have a first child, it has a small negative effect on training participation levels in Germany and no effect in the United Kingdom. This study sheds light on the gendered impact of the transition to parenthood on job-related training participation and how the country context influences these relationships.

Published in

European Sociological Review

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcae026

ISSN

2667215

Subjects

Notes

© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Online Early

#578270

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