The Single Motherhood Penalty at Midlife: The Role of Marital Status for Mothers’ Careers in Sweden, 1905-2015

Maria Stanfors , Lund University
Gabriel Brea-Martinez, Centre for Economic Demography/Dept. of Economic History- Lund University

Single mothers have historically made up most single parents. They continue to have fewer resources than partnered mothers across the Western world with implications for their well-being and their children’s future. This shortfall varies according to context determined by the generosity of government support and work-family compatibility. Using individual-level longitudinal data from the Scanian Economic and Demographic Database (SEDD), 1905–2015, we apply a long-term perspective on single mothers’ income and career developments in relation to married mothers and addressed the role of marital status for mothers’ economic well-being over the life course and at midlife. We found persistent gaps in equivalized family income and in individual income - the former to single mothers’ disadvantage and the latter to their advantage. These gaps declined over time, primarily for the unmarried. The family income gap grew significantly in 1968-1989 when married mothers’ labor supply increased and those married benefitted from having two incomes. At ages 40-49, there were limited differences according to marital status regarding mothers’ educational and occupational attainment. Entropy balancing (EB) estimates show that in 1947–1989, single mothers had significantly higher (>30%) individual income at midlife than married mothers. This gap reversed in 1990-2015 when married mothers had higher individual income than single mothers. EB estimates also show significant gaps in family income to the disadvantage of single mothers throughout the period studied. FE models and EB analyses show that unmeasured as well as measured differences between mothers of different marital states are important for understanding income differentials.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 32. Flash Session Gender, Work and Labour Market