Abstract
There is substantial evidence that due to perceived childcare obligations, mothers are disadvantaged in labor markets. To what extent can childcare support ameliorate such a disadvantage? To answer this question, we ran a CV experiment in a large Indian city and examined whether indicating access to childcare support in a CV may offset the motherhood penalty associated with labor market entry. We randomly varied motherhood, as well as access to childcare in CVs sent to online applications for service sector jobs in Delhi. Indicating motherhood on a CV led to a 57% or 20 percentage point reduction in callback rates for interviews as compared to non-mothers. A simple indication of access to childcare support offsets the motherhood penalty by 20% or 4 percentage points. We interpret the findings in the Indian context and with respect to potential sources of discrimination.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 373-387 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Review of Economics of the Household |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Jul 2021 |
Bibliographical note
JEL Codes: J13, J16, J71, C93Funding Information:
This study has received approval from the Ethics Committee of the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). We thank the Research Innovation Fund of the ISS for financial support. We thank two anonymous referees for their constructive feedback.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Research programs
- ISS-DE
