Luna Pen (C)

Kathleen  McGinn; Michael  Wheeler

Supplement | HBS Case Collection | June 1998 (Revised February 2017)

Luna Pen (C)

by Kathleen McGinn and Michael Wheeler

Abstract

Supplements the (A) and (B) cases.

Keywords: Taiwan; Germany;

Language: English

Format: Print

2 pages

Purchase

Citation:

McGinn, Kathleen, and Michael Wheeler. "Luna Pen (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 898-233, June 1998. (Revised February 2017.)

Article | Work, Employment and Society | June 2019

Learning From Mum: Cross-National Evidence Linking Maternal Employment and Adult Children’s Outcomes

Kathleen L. McGinn, Mayra Ruiz Castro and Elizabeth Long Lingo

Analyses relying on two international surveys from over 100,000 men and women across 29 countries explore the relationship between maternal employment and adult daughters’ and sons’ employment and domestic outcomes. In the employment sphere, adult daughters, but not sons, of employed mothers are more likely to be employed and, if employed, are more likely to hold supervisory responsibility, work more hours and earn higher incomes than their peers whose mothers were not employed. In the domestic sphere, sons raised by employed mothers spend more time caring for family members and daughters spend less time on housework. Analyses provide evidence for two mechanisms: gender attitudes and social learning. Finally, findings show contextual influences at the family and societal levels: family-of-origin social class moderates effects of maternal employment and childhood exposure to female employment within society can substitute for the influence of maternal employment on daughters and reinforce its influence on sons.

Keywords: female labor force participation; gender attitudes; household labor; maternal employment; Social Class; social learning theory; Social mobility; Employment; Gender; Attitudes; Household; Labor; Learning; Outcome or Result;