Career Interruptions, Classroom Interruptions: The Careers of Teacher-Parents in K-12 Education

• In Event: Is Teaching Family-Friendly? Work-Family Dynamics and Teachers’ Careers

Abstract

Objective
Teacher turnover is a substantial problem that disproportionately affects historically marginalized schools and has been linked to lower levels of student achievement (Ronfeldt et al., 2013).
Researchers and policymakers have experimented with a variety of policies to increase teacher retention, including increasing pay (Cohodes et al., 2023; Sun et al., 2024), providing housing (Medlin et al., 2024), moving to a four day work week (Ainsworth et al., 2024), and other initiatives.

Framework
We approach the question of teacher turnover from a gendered perspective, noting the feminized nature of this profession, where over 80% of teachers are women and roughly 48% have children
at home (Boyle, 2004; National Center on Education Statistics, 2023; Hansen & Quintero, 2018). In doing so, we bring the research on teacher turnover into conversation with a large body of research by gender scholars that examines how becoming a parent impacts women’s labor market attachment, career trajectories, and outcomes (e.g., England et al., 2020). This phenomenon of the “motherhood penalty” highlights the disproportionate impact of parenthood on women’s labor market outcomes. Yet we currently know little about the implications of motherhood on teachers’ career trajectories and earnings beyond increased associations with exit (Grissom & Reininger, 2012; Moyer, 2022; Stinebrickner, 1998, 2001a, 2001b, 2002; but see Brummet et al. 2024).

Method
We use 17 years of administrative data from the universe of public school employees in the state of Oregon linked to Internal Revenue Service tax returns to examine the relationship between
gender, parenthood, and a host of labor market outcomes. Specifically, we examine whether and how parenthood differentially relates to career attachment, job mobility, earnings, and career trajectories by gender. Given the variation in motherhood penalties observed across race (Glauber 2007), we also consider how this varies by teacher racial/ethnic background. A novel strength of our data is that we can examine the motherhood penalties for teachers in the
context of their partners’ career trajectories, allowing us to examine whether mothers who are primary and secondary earners experience similar motherhood penalties. Further, our data allow us to examine the degree to which men's career advantages in education are related to fatherhood, speaking to questions around the role of fatherhood in powering the glass escalator (Williams 1992).

Results
Preliminary results are complete, but cannot be shared until reviewed and approved by the U.S. Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board.

Significance
Our work not only has important implications for education policy, but can also speak to potential mechanisms for un-stalling the gender revolution. The case of teaching underscores that
simply having female dominated spaces with highly structured and transparent pay policies may be insufficient for abolishing the motherhood penalty on women’s careers. Rather, our results suggest that broader changes in the understanding of women’s work and how women’s work is valued both in the labor market and in families is needed to create a more egalitarian future.

Authors

• Emily K. Penner, University of California - Irvine

• Quentin Brummet, Michigan State University

• Liliane Nienstedt, Vanderbilt

• Aaron J. Ainsworth, University of California - Irvine

• Andrew Penner, University of California - Irvine