Maternal Employment: Does it Affect the Children When They Grow Up?

Using data on a random sample of young adults in Melbourne, this paper examines the effects of maternal employment during their childhood and adolescence on their educational attainment, relationship with their parents, premarital sexual behaviour, and attitude towards working mothers. Maternal employment has little effect on the characteristics of the son, although men whose mothers work during their adolescence were more likely to have had premarital sex than those whose mothers did not work. Maternal employment has more effect on daughters but the effects were mainly positive rather than negative.