This volume combines approaches from three disciplines – economics, sociology, and demography – and empirically analyzes the key aspects of the labor market and social demography processes in post-Soviet transitional societies while focusing on the gender perspective. Here, readers will find empirical studies on such countries as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The volume contributes to the literature by addressing the lack of academic empirical research on gender difference issues in the labor markets of post-Soviet countries as well as gender inequalities in fertility preferences, gender disparities among the youth and elderly, the gender pay gap, gender differences in employment, and female voices. The book brings together researchers of different disciplines from a variety of countries, distinguishing this project as international and interdisciplinary. The authors use the quantitative survey micro-data approach as well as the qualitative methods of interview data analysis to provide a comprehensive and detailed overview of the economic and social developments in the region regarding gender differences. The volume consists of three parts tackling the following topics: 1) gender differences and demography (family formation and fertility, youth and elderly employment); 2) gender differences and labor market (gender wage gap, motherhood wage penalty, gender differences among freelancers, and women in STEM science); and 3) gender differences, well-being, and gender equality attitudes (women’s voices, women’s collective actions, gender equality attitudes, and spending patterns of housewives).

The transformation of women's lives over the past century is among the most significant and far-reaching of social and economic phenomena, affecting not only women but also their partners, children, and indeed nearly every person on the planet. In developed and developing countries alike, women are acquiring more education, marrying later, having fewer children, and spending a far greater amount of their adult lives in the labor force. Yet, because women remain the primary caregivers of children, issues such as work-life balance and the glass ceiling have given rise to critical policy discussions in the developed world. In developing countries, many women lack access to reproductive technology and are often relegated to jobs in the informal sector, where pay is variable and job security is weak. Considerable occupational segregation and stubborn gender pay gaps persist around the world. The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy is the first comprehensive collection of scholarly essays to address these issues using the powerful framework of economics. Each chapter, written by an acknowledged expert or team of experts, reviews the key trends, surveys the relevant economic theory, and summarizes and critiques the empirical research literature. By providing a clear-eyed view of what we know, what we do not know, and what the critical unanswered questions are, this Handbook provides an invaluable and wide-ranging examination of the many changes that have occurred in women's economic lives.

A former New York Times reporter tackles the difficult issue of gender economic equality, confronting the financial penalties levied on motherhood.

This dissertation explores the connections between changing family structures and economic inequalities in the United States. While previous research shows that motherhood lowers women's earnings, few studies explore how wage penalties for motherhood change over women's lives. Moreover, most research examines only the baby boomer cohort; consequentially, little is known about how millennials experience this wage penalty and how such burdens of motherhood have changed across cohorts. This study investigates whether and how the motherhood wage penalty changes both across women's life course and cohorts with these questions: (1) Does the motherhood penalty change over women's lives? (2) What are the transition patterns to motherhood among millennials? (3) Does the motherhood wage penalty vary between baby boom and millennial cohorts? and (4) What factors are associated with these variations in motherhood wage penalties? Using panel data from the 1979 and 1997 cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I found that among baby boomers child penalty increases a few years after their first childbirth and peaks with having teenagers. Baby boom mothers no longer suffer significant wage penalties during their later years of motherhood. The findings also show that marriage is associated with a greater likelihood of transitioning to motherhood among millennials. Higher education correlates with a decreased likelihood of becoming a mother among white and Latina women, but not among black women. The last set of findings indicates that millennial mothers receive smaller or no child penalties compared to baby boom mothers. Married mothers within the baby boom cohort receive the largest wage penalty while conversely their millennial counterparts enjoy a wage boost. The intellectual merits of this dissertation are twofold. First, whereas most prior studies treat the effect of motherhood on earnings as an average effect over time, I examine how this wage effect varies across women's life course. Second, although much has changed in the work and family lives of subsequent cohorts, most studies focus on the motherhood wage penalty among baby boom women. This study thus has expanded the scholarship to examine the motherhood wage penalty and the transition to parenthood among millennials.

Modern-day motherhood is hard and discrimination against women who are, have been or could be pregnant is on the rise. Pregnant Then Screwed tells us what the barriers to motherhood and work are, and how we can work together to overcome them.