Israeli society presents a unique context for studying motherhood’s impacts on employment and earnings: High fertility and marriage rates coincide with high rates of women’s education and employment. While past research finds low motherhood penalties in Israel, ethno-religious group differences in these penalties are unexplored. Ours is the first longitudinal study to examine simultaneously motherhood’s employment and wage penalties among Israeli ethno-religious groups. Using newly available panel data, we find that motherhood deters employment among Israeli-Palestinians more strongly than among Jews, and particularly among less-educated Israeli-Palestinians. Similarly, motherhood wage penalties and ethno-religious disparities are greatest among the least-educated women. For all groups, highly educated women incur smaller motherhood penalties in employment and earnings, and in some cases receive motherhood wage premiums. Public-sector employment, particularly for Muslims, is associated with higher postnatal employment, lower motherhood penalties, and motherhood premiums among the highly educated. The stronger enforcement of anti-discrimination and work–family policies in the public sector, along with its schoolteachers’ collective bargaining agreement that raises maternal earnings, may contribute to its more positive outcomes for Israeli-Palestinian mothers. Our findings suggest that increasing educational attainment and public-sector employment among Israeli-Palestinians may reduce ethno-religious inequality in motherhood’s impact on employment and earnings.
AbendrothAnja-KristinHuffmanMatt L.TreasJudith. 2014. The parity penalty in life course perspective: Motherhood and occupational status in 13 European countries. American Sociological Review79 (5): 993–1014.
2.
AckerJoan. 1990. Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society4 (2): 139–58.
3.
AisenbreySilkeEvertssonMarieGrunowDaniela. 2009. Is there a career penalty for mothers’ time out? A comparison of Germany, Sweden and the United States. Social Forces88 (2): 573–605.
4.
AisenbreySilkeFasangAnette. 2017. The interplay of work and family trajectories over the life course: Germany and the United States in comparison. American Journal of Sociology122 (5): 1448–84.
AllisonPaul D.2014. Event history and survival analysis. 2nd ed.Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
7.
Amuedo-DorantesCatalinaKimmelJean. 2005. The motherhood wage gap for women in the United States: The importance of college and fertility delay. Review of Economics of the Household3 (1): 17–48.
8.
AndersonDeborah J.BinderMelissaKrauseKate. 2003. The motherhood wage penalty revisited: Experience, heterogeneity, work effort, and work-schedule flexibility. ILR Review56 (2): 273–94.
9.
BenardStephenCorrellShelley J.. 2010. Normative discrimination and the motherhood penalty. Gender & Society24 (5): 616–46.
10.
BentalBenjaminKrausVeredYonayYuval. 2017. Ethnic and gender earning gaps in a liberalized economy: The case of Israel. Social Science Research63:209–26.
11.
BerkovitchNitza. 1997. Motherhood as a national mission: The construction of womanhood in the legal discourse in Israel. Women’s Studies International Forum20 (5–6): 605–19.
12.
BoeckmannIreneMisraJoyaBudigMichelle J.. 2015. Cultural and institutional factors shaping mothers’ employment and working hours in postindustrial countries. Social Forces93 (4): 1301–33.
13.
BousselinAudrey. 2022. Access to universal childcare and its effect on maternal employment. Review of Economics of the Household20 (2): 497–532.
14.
BudigMichelle J.2003. Are women’s employment and fertility histories interdependent? An examination of causal order using event history analysis. Social Science Research32 (3): 376–401.
15.
BudigMichelle J.EnglandPaula. 2001. The wage penalty for motherhood. American Sociological Review66 (2): 204–25.
16.
BudigMichelle J.HodgesMelissa J.. 2010. Differences in disadvantage: Variation in the motherhood penalty across White women’s earnings distribution. American Sociological Review75 (5): 705–28.
17.
BudigMichelle J.HodgesMelissa J.. 2014. Reply to Killewald and Bearak: Statistical models and empirical evidence for differences in the motherhood penalty across the earnings distribution. American Sociological Review79 (2): 358–64.
18.
BudigMichelle J.MisraJoyaBoeckmannIrene. 2012. The motherhood penalty in cross-national perspective: The importance of work–family policies and cultural attitudes. Social Politics19 (2): 163–93.
19.
BudigMichelle J.MisraJoyaBoeckmannIrene. 2016. Work–family policy trade-offs for mothers? Unpacking the cross-national variation in the motherhood earnings penalties. Work and Occupations43 (2): 119–77.
Central Bureau of Statistics. 2022b. Secure data center. Jerusalem: Central Bureau of Statistics.
26.
CorrellShelleyBenardStephenPaikIn. 2007. Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty?American Journal of Sociology112 (5): 1297–1338.
27.
DorenCatherine. 2019. Which mothers pay a higher price? Education differences in motherhood wage penalties by parity and fertility timing. Sociological Science6:684–709.
28.
EnglandPaulaBearakJonathanBudigMichelle J.HodgesMelissa J.. 2016. Do highly paid, highly skilled women experience the largest motherhood penalty?American Sociological Review81 (6): 1161–89.
29.
EvertssonMarieGrunowDanielaAisenbreySilke. 2016. Work interruptions and young women’s career prospects in Germany, Sweden and the US. Work, Employment and Society30 (2): 291–308.
30.
FerraginaEmanuele. 2020. Family policy and women’s employment outcomes in 45 high-income countries: A systematic qualitative review of 238 comparative and national studies. Social Policy & Administration54 (7): 1016–66.
31.
FlorianSandra M.2018. Racial variation in the effect of motherhood on women’s employment: Temporary or enduring effect?Social Science Research73:80–91.
32.
FuegenKathleenBiernatMonicaHainesElizabethDeauxKay. 2004. Mothers and fathers in the workplace: How gender and parental status influence judgments of job-related competence. Journal of Social Issues60 (4): 737–54.
33.
GanglMarkusZiefleAndrea. 2009. Motherhood, labor force behavior, and women’s careers: An empirical assessment of the wage penalty for motherhood in Britain, Germany, and the United States. Demography46 (2): 341–69.
34.
GashVanessa. 2009. Sacrificing their careers for their families? An analysis of the penalty to motherhood in Europe. Social Indicators Research93:569–86.
35.
GlauberRebecca. 2007. Marriage and the motherhood wage penalty among African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites. Journal of Marriage and Family69 (4): 951–61.
36.
GoldinClaudia. 2014. A grand convergence: Its last chapter. American Economic Review104 (4): 1091–1119.
37.
Gonalons-PonsPilar. 2015. Gender and class housework inequalities in the era of outsourcing hiring domestic work in Spain. Social Science Research52:208–18.
38.
GreenmanEmily. 2011. Asian American–White differences in the effect of motherhood on career outcomes. Work and Occupations38 (1): 37–67.
39.
HaberfeldYitchakCohenYinon. 2007. Gender, ethnic and national earnings gaps in Israel: The role of rising inequality. Social Science Research36 (2): 654–72.
40.
HalldénKarinLevanonAsafKricheli-KatzTamar. 2016. Does the motherhood wage penalty differ by individual skill and country family policy? A longitudinal study of ten European countries. Social Politics23 (3): 363–88.
41.
HerbstChris M.2017. Universal child care, maternal employment, and children’s long-run outcomes: Evidence from the US Lanham Act of 1940. Journal of Labor Economics35 (2): 519–64.
HodgesMelissaBudigMichelle J.. 2010. Who gets the daddy bonus? Organizational hegemonic masculinity and the impact of fatherhood on earnings. Gender & Society24 (6): 717–45.
45.
KeckWolfgangSaracenoChiara. 2013. The impact of different social-policy frameworks on social inequalities among women in the European Union: The labour-market participation of mothers. Social Politics20 (3): 297–328.
46.
KhattabNabil. 2002. Ethnicity and female labour market participation: A new look at the Palestinian enclave in Israel. Work, Employment and Society16 (1): 91–110.
47.
KhattabNabilMiaariSami, eds. 2013. Palestinians in the Israeli labor market: A multi-disciplinary approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
KrausVered. 2002. Secondary breadwinners: Israeli women in the labor force. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
50.
KrausVeredYonayYuval P.. 2018. Facing barriers: Palestinian women in a Jewish-dominated labor market. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
51.
Kricheli-KatzTamiMandelHadasKriyaMichal. 2018. Between family and work—Discrimination against mothers in Israel and the US. Work, Society, and Law16:1–22. (In Hebrew)
52.
LevanonAsafSaburovEvgenyGanglMarkusBrülleJan. 2019. Trends in the demographic composition of poverty among working families in Germany and in Israel, 1991–2011. Social Science Research83:102318.
53.
LevanonGadRavivYaron. 2007. Decomposing wage gaps between ethnic groups: The case of Israel. Southern Economic Journal73 (4): 1066–87.
54.
LuYaoWangJulia Shu-HuahHanWen-Jui. 2017. Women’s short-term employment trajectories following birth: Patterns, determinants, and variations by race/ethnicity and nativity. Demography54 (1): 93–118.
55.
MandelHadasSemyonovMoshe. 2006. A welfare state paradox: State interventions and women’s employment opportunities in 22 countries. American Journal of Sociology111 (6): 1910–49.
56.
MargaliothS. R.2004. Labor market discrimination against Arab Israeli citizens: Can something be done. NYU Journal of International Law and Politics36:845–84.
57.
McGahernUna. 2011. The limits of dissent: Palestinian media in a Jewish ethnocracy. Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research4 (1): 79–93.
58.
MisraJoyaBudigMichelleBoeckmannIrene. 2011. Work-family policies and the effects of children on women’s employment hours and wages. Community, Work, & Family14 (2): 139–57.
59.
MundlakGuy. 2008. The Israeli system of labor law: Sources and form. Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal30 (2): 159–82.
60.
NivorozhkinAntonRomeu-GordoLaura. 2019. How do longer parental leaves affect women’s workplace tasks? Evidence from Germany. Feminist Economics25 (3): 119–43.
61.
OeschDanielLippsOliverMcDonaldPatrick. 2017. The wage penalty for motherhood: Evidence on discrimination from panel data and a survey experiment for Switzerland. Demographic Research37:1793–1824.
62.
OkunBarbara S.2013. Fertility and marriage behavior in Israel: Diversity, change and stability. Demographic Research28:457–504.
63.
OkunBarbara S.FriedlanderDov. 2005. Educational stratification among Arabs and Jews in Israel: Historical disadvantage, discrimination, and opportunity. Population Studies59 (2): 163–80.
ParrottHeather Macpherson. 2014. Housework, children, and women’s wages across racial–ethnic groups. Social Science Research46:72–84.
67.
Pertold-GebickaBarbaraPertoldFilipGuptaNabanita Datta. 2016. Employment adjustments around childbirth. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9685. Bonn: IZA.
68.
Pollmann-SchultMatthias. 2016. What mothers want: The impact of structural and cultural factors on mothers’ preferred working hours in Western Europe. Advances in Life Course Research29:16–25.
69.
Sa’arAmalia. 2017. The gender contract under neoliberalism: Palestinian-Israeli women’s labor force participation. Feminist Economics23 (1): 54–76.
70.
Sigle-RushtonWendyWaldfogelJane. 2007. Motherhood and women’s earnings in Anglo-American, continental European, and Nordic countries. Feminist Economics13 (2): 55–91.
71.
SmeatonDeborah. 2006. Work return rates after childbirth in the UK—Trends, determinants and implications: A comparison of cohorts born in 1958 and 1970. Work, Employment and Society20 (1): 5–25.
72.
StierHayaLewin-EpsteinNoahBraunMichael. 2001. Welfare regimes, family-supportive policies, and women’s employment along the life-course. American Journal of Sociology106 (6): 1731–60.
73.
StierHayaYaishMeir. 2008. The determinants of women’s employment dynamics: The case of Israeli women. European Sociological Review24 (3): 363–77.
74.
TsibelNatalia. 2009. Peripherality index of local authorities in Israel: Combination of potential accessibility index with proximity to the Tel Aviv District. Jerusalem: Central Bureau of Statistics.
VakninDana. 2020. Early childhood education in Israel compared to the OECD: Enrollment rates, employment rates of mothers, quality indices, and future achievement. Jerusalem: Taub Center for the Study of Social Policy. (In Hebrew)
77.
Van WinkleZacharyFasangAnette Eva. 2020. Parenthood wage gaps across the life course: A comparison by gender and race. Journal of Marriage and Family82 (5): 1515–33.
78.
YiftachelOren. 2006. Ethnocracy: Land and identity politics in Israel/Palestine. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
79.
YonayYuval P.KrausVered. 2001. Strategies of economic endurance: Israeli Palestinians in the ethnic economy and public sector. Social Stratification and Mobility18:207–47.
80.
YonayYuval P.KrausVered. 2017. The role of the state and the pliability of tradition: Israeli Palestinian and Middle-Eastern Jewish women in the labor force. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility50:29–39.
81.
YuWei-hsinKuoJanet Chen-Lan. 2017. The motherhood wage penalty by work conditions: How do occupational characteristics hinder or empower mothers?American Sociological Review82 (4): 744–69.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
