Mary C. Noonan

Family Migration and Labor Force Outcomes: Sex Differences in Occupational Context

Empirical analyses of sex differences in the career consequences of family migration have focused on adjudicating between the human capital and the gender-role explanations but have ignored the potential influence of gender inequality in the structure of the labor market. In this paper we estimate conditional difference-in-difference models with individual-, family- and occupation-level data to test a structural explanation that attributes sex differences in the returns to family migration to occupational sex segregation. Despite using measures of relevant occupational characteristics and occupational fixed effects, our results do not support the structural explanation. Instead, the results add to the body of empirical evidence that is consistent with the gender-role explanation of sex differences in the experience of family migration.

Pay Differences Among the Highly Trained: Cohort Differences in the Sex Gap in Lawyers' Earnings

Using unique data from a survey of University of Michigan Law School graduates, we test various models of how sex differences in pay, labor supply and job settings should have evolved as women entered the elite male field of law. We compare the sex gap in earnings 15 years after graduation for two cohorts of lawyers and find that it has remained constant over time. In both cohorts, men earn 52 percent more than women, 17 percent more than women with similar characteristics, and 11 percent more than women with similar characteristics in the same job settings. Sex differences in hours worked have increased over time and explain more of the sex-based earnings gap, while sex differences in job settings and years spent in private practice have declined and explain less of the gap.

Do Workplace Flexibility Policies Influence Time Spent in Domestic Labor

Using data from a U.S. midwestern sample of mothers and fathers, the authors examine whether using workplace flexibility policies alters time spent in housework and child care. They hypothesize that an individual’s policy use will lead to more time in domestic labor and that his or her spouse’s policy use will lead to less time in domestic labor. Several results support their hypotheses. Mothers who work part-time spend more time in housework and their husbands spend less time in housework. Also, mothers who work at home spend more time in child care. One policy has the opposite of the predicted effect: Wives with flexible work schedules do less housework, and their husbands do more. Overall, mothers’ policy use has counterbalancing effects on their own and their spouses’ domestic labor time, implying that policy use has little net impact on total domestic labor time within dual-earner families.

Is Breastfeeding Truly Cost Free? Income Consequences of Breastfeeding for Women

Based on studies showing health advantages for breastfeeding mothers and their infants, pediatricians and other breastfeeding advocates encourage new mothers to breastfeed their babies for at least the first six months of their infants’ lives, arguing that breast milk is best for infants, families, and society, and it is cost free. Few empirical studies, however, document how the decision to breastfeed instead of formula-feed is associated with women’s post-birth earnings. This is an important omission, given that the majority of women today work for pay, and many work in job environments incompatible with breastfeeding. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, our results show that mothers who breastfeed for six months or longer suffer more severe and more prolonged earnings losses than do mothers who breastfeed for shorter durations or not at all. The larger post-birth drop in earnings for long-duration breastfeeders is due to a larger reduction in labor supply. We discuss the implications of these findings for gender equality at home and at work.

The Mommy Track and Partnership: Temporary Delay or Dead End

Using unique data from University of Michigan Law School graduates, the authors examine sex differences in promotion to partnership among lawyers. The authors investigate three steps in the partnership process: (1) the decision to attrite early from private practice, (2) the attainment of partnership among those who do not attrite, and (3) determinants of partners’ earnings. Results show that men are less likely than women to leave private practice and more likely than women to become partners, even after controlling for a number of individual characteristics. Among partners, men earn significantly more than women. There is no evidence of a direct marriage or parenthood penalty, but lawyers who have taken time out of the labor force to attend to child care responsibilities are less likely to become partners and earn less if they do become partners. These findings provide strong indirect evidence that women lawyers face multiple glass ceilings in the workplace.

Examining the impact of welfare reform, labor market conditions, and the Earned Income Tax Credit on the employment of black and white single mothers ☆

Abstract Using the Annual Demographic Files of the March Current Population Survey, we estimate the effects of welfare policies, labor market conditions, and the Earned Income Tax Credit on the probability of employment for black and white single mothers, and we investigate the extent to which changes in these macro-level factors account for racial differences in employment growth over this period. Compared to white single mothers, black single mothers are more likely to be high school dropouts, never married, and central city residents, and our results show that policy and labor market changes had a more profound effect on the employment of these groups. However, these compositional differences and interaction effects were not substantial enough to produce dissimilar explanations for the changes in employment by race. During the period of economic expansion, increases in the EITC were the most important factor, accounting for approximately 25% of the increase in employment for both black and white single mothers. Declines in the unemployment rate and welfare reform were less important, together accounting for an additional 25% of the increase.

Measuring Mate Preferences A Replication and Extension

Mate preferences have a long research history in the social sciences, yet given their evolving nature they must be revisited periodically. We use evolutionary psychology and social role paradigms to frame our study and contribute to this body of work in two important ways. First, we examine preference trends over the past 25 years and find that both men and women increasingly place a higher value on a mate’s financial prospects and desire for home and children. Second, we compare results generated from qualitative mate preference data with two popular methods in mate preference literature in terms of substantive findings and methodological utility.