IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/war/wpaper/2025-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Role of Working-From-Home for Maternal Employment Re-Entry after Childbirth

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Matysiak

    (Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics (LabFam), Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw)

  • Beata Osiewalska

    (Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics (LabFam), Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw)

  • Anna Kurowska

    (Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics (LabFam), Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw)

Abstract

This study investigates how work-from-home (WFH) —by mothers and their male partners—shapes maternal employment re-entry after childbirth. Drawing on Conservation of Resources and Boundary Management theories, the study distinguishes between WFH access and regular use. It hypothesizes that regular WFH use by mothers and their partners supports earlier and full-time maternal return to paid work, particularly among second-time mothers. The UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2019) is used to estimate discrete-time hazard models of return to paid work after first and second births, distinguishing between full-time and part-time re-entry. Among first-time mothers, both WFH access and regular use are associated with a greater likelihood of full-time re-entry, though not with overall return. Among second-time mothers, regular pre-birth WFH use significantly increases the likelihood of returning to paid work—regardless of hours—whereas access alone does not. No significant associations are found between male partners’ WFH and maternal employment outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Matysiak & Beata Osiewalska & Anna Kurowska, 2025. "The Role of Working-From-Home for Maternal Employment Re-Entry after Childbirth," Working Papers 2025-18, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    • Handle: RePEc:war:wpaper:2025-18
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/download_file/6096/0
    File Function: First version, 2025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:war:wpaper:2025-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jacek Rapacz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fesuwpl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.