Kindergarten and Career Comebacks for Mothers: Is Access to Public School Enough?

Over the last 70 years, there has been a dramatic increase in female labor supply. However, gender gaps in employment trajectories remain, in part because the role of childrearing has largely fallen upon women. Providing more publicly funded childcare could relax these constraints, which may have ramifications for mothers' labor supply decisions over time. We examine the dynamic effects of gaining childcare access earlier on mothers' labor supply. Using a regression discontinuity in kindergarten eligibility cutoffs for nearly 7.5 million U.S. mothers, we estimate how gaining access to childcare, through public school, one year earlier affects maternal employment over time. Enrolling a child in school one year earlier increases annual maternal employment by 2.2 percentage points, and the effect persists for two years, even though children born after the eligibility cutoff gain similar access the next year. However, employment effects eventually fade out, highlighting the limited role publicly-provided childcare plays in closing long-term gender gaps. We show that mothers take on additional family management responsibilities after childbirth, and these responsibilities are not relaxed by gaining childcare access. Moving childcare access earlier will not necessarily close gender gaps in employment as mothers still face these additional constraints.