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Has the Rise of Work from Home Reduced the Motherhood Penalty in the Labor Market?

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  • Emma Harrington
  • Matthew E. Kahn

Abstract

When women become mothers, they often take a step back from their careers. Could work from home (WFH) reduce this motherhood penalty, particularly in traditionally family-unfriendly careers? We leverage technological changes prior to the pandemic that increased the feasibility of WFH in some college degrees but not others. In degrees where WFH increased, motherhood gaps in employment narrowed: for every 10% increase in WFH, mothers’ employment rates increased by 0.78 per centage points (or 0.94%) relative to other women’s. This change is driven by majors linked to careers that have high returns to hours and inflexible demands on workers’ time. We microfound these results using panel data that show that women who could WFH before childbirth are less likely to exit the workforce.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma Harrington & Matthew E. Kahn, 2025. "Has the Rise of Work from Home Reduced the Motherhood Penalty in the Labor Market?," NBER Working Papers 34147, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34147
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    Cited by:

    1. Hans-Martin von Gaudecker & Radost Holler & Lenard Holler & Christian Pugnaghi-Zimpelmann, 2025. "Can Work from Home Help Balance the Parental Division of Labor?," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_661v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany, revised Mar 2026.
    2. Li, Huiyu & Sauvagnat, Julien & Schmitz, Tom, 2026. "The Work-from-Home Wage Premium," CEPR Discussion Papers 20996, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    3. Jean-Victor Alipour, 2026. "Performance Pay in the Hybrid Work Economy," CESifo Working Paper Series 12680, CESifo.
    4. Mert Akan & Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Thomas Bowen & Shelby R. Buckman & Steven J. Davis & Hyoseul Kim, 2025. "The New Geography of Labor Markets," NBER Working Papers 33582, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Basso, Gaetano & De Paola, Maria & Lattanzio, Salvatore & Paradisi, Matteo, 2026. "Workplace Flexibility and the Motherhood Penalty: Evidence from the Diffusion of Remote Work," CEPR Discussion Papers 21486, Centre for Economic Policy Research.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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