The gender-asymmetric effect of working mothers on children's education: Evidence from Japan

In this paper, I study how maternal employment affects the educational attainment of children. Using Japanese household data, I find that part-time maternal employment and self-employment have negative effects on the educational attainment of both sons and daughters. However, I find that full-time maternal employment has a negative effect only on sons. Moreover, I find that maternal employment status is transmitted to daughters. This gender-asymmetric effect of working mothers on children and the transmission of employment status from mothers to daughters jointly provide supporting evidence for a role model effect of full-time maternal employment on daughters. J. Japanese Int. Economies22 (4) (2008) 586–604.