The Motherhood Penalty

I can’t be the only progressive who went to a Catholic school and ended up getting into heated discussions with my conservative theology teacher. In my freshman year of high school, my theology teacher was a real misogynist. The guy drove me crazy. I remember one thing we argued about was whether married couples should be forced to have kids. No matter what I said, his response was always shrugging and saying, “You’ve got to be open to kids,” with no further explanation, even when I pointed out that women can literally die giving birth, and the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world (how pro-life of us). Other than that, my main points were that kids don’t make everyone happy, and if you don’t want kids, you probably shouldn’t become a parent because your kid might grow up feeling resented and having lifelong problems while you have regrets and dream of a life where you could travel without checking to see what your child’s school and sports schedule allowed. I also mentioned that a couple could travel the world volunteering and doing charity work, and they could end up helping thousands of people by doing something they might not be able to do if they had kids. Anyway, my point is the guy wouldn’t budge. Eventually, he stopped taking my questions, but I hadn’t even gotten through half the battle. The motherhood penalty is a huge thing for women. After having children, women are often passed up for jobs and promotions, meaning that they earn less money, and it even gets to the point where they are expected to cut down to part-time or quit their job altogether. Why should we expect a woman to give up her career to raise kids when we don’t expect men to do that? The motherhood penalty means major setbacks and lost money and opportunities. I feel like it isn’t talked about enough, and if we don’t talk about it, we can’t fight it. Therefore, I have compiled a list of facts on the motherhood penalty and what we can do to correct it. 

I never want to have kids. It’s not that I dislike kids, I just don’t want one. I have many different reasons for not wanting kids, but I’m not going through the whole list because I don’t owe anyone an explanation. However, I will say that the motherhood penalty definitely makes the list.  I'm not about to take a 4-5% wage reduction, get passed up for promotions, and experience hiring bias just so I can be up all night and do hours and hours of unpaid domestic labor. This sounds like a nightmare to me, and what women go through is so unfair (meanwhile, a man who washes the dishes is considered a hero). Personally, I would never have kids even if it weren’t for the motherhood penalty, and I know that an increasing amount of young women would take the same path as me. However, what about the women who want to be mothers but don’t want to face all the bias and sacrifice that comes with it? What about the women who already are mothers but are getting passed up for jobs and promotions because of it? Why do they need to go through this, and how can we correct it? 

Here are some facts about the motherhood penalty: 

1. The most cited wage cut for women after having children is earning around 4-5% less than nonmothers. However, a study from Columbia University suggests that women earn HALF as much after having children. 

2. One of the main reasons women earn so much less is because they are often expected to reduce hours or even drop out of the workforce after having kids. Columbia researchers show that even female breadwinners sometimes pause their careers, facing huge financial losses in the long run. 

3. Women perform far more domestic labor than men. Globally, women perform 2.5 times more domestic labor and do 16 billion hours of unpaid care work per day. In the United States, women average 5.7 hours per day compared to men’s 3.6 hours. This labor includes cooking, cleaning, caring for kids and elders, and doing other household chores.

4. Motherhood is linked to over 60% of the gender pay gap in Europe. In the United States, there is research to suggest motherhood is responsible for nearly 80% of the gender pay gap.

5. Mothers are often less likely to be hired or promoted than women without children due to workplace discrimination.

6. Mothers are far more likely to work in underpaid and undervalued jobs than fathers are. 

7. Women are often forced to leave work or cut down hours due to unaffordable childcare and not being given paid parental leave. 

I know these facts make a lot of people, myself included, incredibly angry. If you need to go punch a hole in the wall, feel free to do so. When I look at these facts, it makes me wonder why anyone would become a mother. Mothers have the strength to grow a fetus inside of them and go through the excruciating pain of giving birth, creating a whole new human being just to face workplace discrimination and do hours of unpaid labor. If men could give birth, they would be treated as gods, but women who do so are somehow treated as less worthy than men and women who don’t have kids. It genuinely makes me furious. However, we are not hopeless. Some things we can do to help support mothers and fight the motherhood penalty are:

1. The United States can finally catch up to the rest of the developed world and have guaranteed paid parental leave. This would allow new mothers to take a short break from their career to get settled in with their baby, and then, they could go back to their careers without facing significant loss. In addition, giving fathers paid leave would help get them more involved in parenting.

2. We can give parents access to universal subsidized childcare. Childcare costs more than in-state college tuition. A lot of parents simply can’t afford to pay the massive cost of childcare, meaning that the mother is often expected to cut down her hours to take care of her children. Providing access to affordable childcare would allow women to stay focused on their careers and contribute to the economy while knowing her kids are safe. 

3. We can normalize jobs with flexible or remote work schedules that still have opportunity for career advancement without stigma or decreased pay. In this day and age, it is easier than ever to work remotely with all the ways we can communicate and be productive online. 

4. One way we can prevent workplace discrimination against mothers is to require companies to be transparent in hiring, promotion, and pay rates by gender and parental status. This would help catch bias against mothers and correct the discrimination. 

References:

(2024, August 7). Motherhood Is Hard—Pay Penalties Make It Harder. Institute For Women's Policy Research. https://iwpr.org/articles/motherhood-is-hard-pay-penalties-make-it-harder/

(2025, October 23). FAQs: What is unpaid care work and how does it power the economy? UN Women. https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-what-is-unpaid-care-work-and-how-does-it-power-the-economy

(2020, January 22). Women do 2 more hours of housework daily than men. Institute For Women's Policy Research. https://iwpr.org/press/women-do-2-more-hours-of-housework-daily-than-men/

Craig, D. J. Women Earn Half as Much After Having Children, Finds New Study. Columbia Magazine. https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/women-earn-half-much-after-having-children-finds-new-study