Daughters' Unpaid Family Work in Brazil: Connections to Mothers' Work for Pay and Educational Consequences

• In Event: 4167 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Children & Youth Roundtable 7: Educational Disparities

Abstract

Researchers agree in that early life experiences and socialization significantly impact life paths, yet, little academic research has investigated girls’ unpaid household contributions to their households. Using nationally-representative data from Brazil, this paper investigates the relationship between mothers’ work intensity and daughters’ family work (care work and house chores), with a focus on children and adolescents. We further explore the connection between girls’ family work and school absenteeism, a critical factor in girls’ human capital formation. Supporting a substitution effect argument, we find that as mothers work more, girls’ unpaid family work increases. Still, this association varies by socioeconomic strata, being stronger for girls from disadvantaged families. Moreover, our findings suggest that domestic and care work may have a detrimental impact in the educational attainment of Brazilian girls. Taken as a whole, our findings point out to family work as a mechanism of intergenerational transmission of gendered disadvantage.

Authors

• Aida Villanueva, University of Texas at Austin

• Maria Carolina Mota Pereira Aragao, University of Texas at Austin