Child penalties – the disproportionate career impact of parenthood on women relative to men – are a persistent driver of gender inequality in the labour market. Despite policy efforts, these penalties remain stubbornly high. Using rich data from the US, this column explores the effect of exposure to peers during adolescence. Greater exposure to working mothers during middle and high school significantly reduces girls’ child penalties when they grow up. Exposure to working fathers has the opposite effect, increasing child penalties. Parental role models are critical in shaping gender norms and child-related gender gaps in the labour market.
Most women reduce their working hours or leave the workforce entirely after having their first child – a trend observed across countries and over time. These employment reductions come with significant economic consequences, including lost earnings, stalled career trajectories, and widened gender gaps. But what drives these decisions, and to what extent are they shaped by external influences?
Existing research suggests that policies aimed at supporting working mothers, such as subsidised childcare and flexible work arrangements, have had only modest effects in reducing child penalties. Instead, much of the persistence appears to be rooted in cultural factors and gender norms (Boelmann et al. 2024, Olivetti and Petrongolo 2017, Kleven et al. 2021, Kleven 2024).
But what exactly are social norms, and how do they operate? Our research (Kleven et al. 2024) takes a unique approach, investigating how very localised exposure to the behaviour of peers’ parents during adolescence influences labour market outcomes later in life.
Tracking children from school to adulthood
Our analysis draws on the Add Health study, a nationally representative survey that tracked 90,000 US teens from 144 schools into adulthood. This dataset is uniquely suited to examine how adolescent social environments shape long-term outcomes, as it links students to their middle- and high-school peers and their peers’ parents. Respondents were followed as they navigated careers, marriages, and parenthood, allowing us to observe their labour market behaviours after having children.
For every individual in our sample, we measure the share of their classmates’ mothers and fathers who worked for pay and compare it to their own employment patterns after becoming parents. The richness of the data allows us to control for family background, including demographic characteristics and whether their own mother or father was working during their adolescence.
To ensure our results are causal, we leverage differences in exposure between cohorts within the same school. For instance, consider Sarah and Emily, two students at the same school but in different grades. Sarah, in grade 9, is in a cohort where 65% of her peers’ mothers work. Emily, in grade 10, sees a slightly higher exposure rate of 71%. This ‘luck of the draw’ variation provides a natural experiment to isolate the effects of exposure to working mothers or fathers, independent of broader school or community characteristics.
The power of peers’ parents: Striking asymmetries
Our findings reveal that a girl who belongs to a classroom where most mothers work is significantly more likely to stay in the workforce after having children than a girl in a classroom where most mothers stay at home, conditional on her pre-birth employment level.
Specifically, girls in the top third of exposure – those with the highest share of working mothers – experience a drop in employment that is 12 percentage points smaller than girls in the bottom third, during the first five years following childbirth. This demonstrates that localised exposure to parental role models can have a long-lasting effect (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Girls’ exposure during adolescence to working mothers and employment after childbirth
But what about exposure to working fathers? Interestingly, this effect runs in the opposite direction. Girls in the top third of exposure to working fathers face larger child penalties than those in the bottom third (Figure 2). The striking asymmetry in the effects of working fathers and mothers suggests that the influence of role models is gender-specific and shaped by cultural interpretations of traditional roles.
Figure 2 Girls’ exposure during adolescence to working fathers and employment after childbirth
Why does exposure matter?
Adolescence is a critical phase where preferences, aspirations, and expectations about adulthood begin to take shape. Girls who grow up in environments where working mothers are the norm are more likely to envision a future where they balance career and motherhood. In contrast, greater exposure to working fathers may reinforce traditional norms that prioritise men’s careers over women’s.
These implicit signals, absorbed during adolescence, manifest themselves years later in adult decisions about whether to return to work after having children. In other words, the ideals and expectations shaped during this formative period create a blueprint for navigating work and family life.
Implications for policy and practice
Our findings underscore the profound influence of social norms and adolescent peer environments on labour market inequalities. While policies like paid leave and affordable childcare are important, they alone cannot dismantle child penalties if the underlying cultural expectations remain unchanged.
However, our results point to a promising avenue for intervention. Schools, as hubs of social learning, provide a powerful setting to challenge and reshape gender norms. Campaigns showcasing working mothers as role models – whether through school curricula, career days, or mentorship programmes – could help normalise women’s dual roles as mothers and workers. By targeting adolescents, such initiatives could influence gender-role ideals at a time when preferences are still forming.
At the same time, it is critical to recognise the challenges of changing deeply entrenched norms. Progress is likely to be gradual, requiring sustained efforts across multiple domains, including education, media, and workplace policies. Still, fostering environments that encourage diverse role models offers a tangible step toward greater gender equality.
A broader conversation on role models
Our study raises important questions for future research. For instance, how do these dynamics play out in different cultural or economic contexts? Would exposure to working mothers have a similar effect in countries with stronger or weaker family policies? Moreover, how do peer influences interact with media portrayals of gender roles to shape expectations?
Understanding the interplay between individual experiences, peer environments, and broader societal norms is critical for addressing the root causes of gender inequality. While there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution, the power of role models – especially during adolescence – offers a compelling tool to reduce child penalties and close gender gaps in the labour market.
