The Opt-Out Continuation: Education, Work, and Motherhood from 1984 to 2012

Abstract

Debate about an increasing trend in highly educated women dropping out of the labor force to care for children—an opt-out revolution—has been considerable. I use unique features of the of Survey of Income and Program Participation—a large nationally representative sample, longitudinal structure, monthly labor-force outcomes, and repeated panels—to study trends in women's birth-related career interruptions over time and across the education spectrum. Methodologically, I use event studies to compare women's monthly labor-force outcomes on the extensive and intensive margins from twenty-four months before to twenty-four months after births in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Rather than an abrupt change in opting out, I find that the pattern of birth-related interruptions has changed surprisingly little over the past thirty years—substantial and sustained interruptions remain common for mothers in all education categories. Rather than a revolution, I find an opt-out continuation.