A1002
Title: The "Motherhood Penalty" in artistic production: Historical evidence from American authors, 1800-1999
Authors: Christiane Hellmanzik - Technical University of Dortmund (Germany) [presenting]
Lukas Kuld - University of Limerick (Ireland)
Sara Mitchell - University of Southern Denmark (Denmark)
Abstract: Historical data is utilised to explore the existence of a child penalty in authorship and to determine whether female authors were disproportionately affected. A novel dataset of 472 eminent American writers (born 1800-1949) that includes yearly residence, the year in which their children were born, and data on career success (including publications, critical acclaim, and market success data) is used. The productivity of male and female authors following the birth of a child is investigated. Significantly lower publication rates for female authors are found for the first ten years following the birth of a child. A similar reduction in productivity was not observed for male authors. These findings are confirmed using the general fertility rate, age, and gender as an IV for the probability of motherhood. The long-run trend of this child penalty is also explored from a time in which women's rights were severely restricted through the expansion of women's rights through the mid-20th century. Furthermore, how this motherhood penalty evolved post-WWII when there was a divergence in gender representation in the labor force, a baby boom, and rigid gender roles is explicitly investigated.
