The Opt-Out Continuation: Education, Work, and Motherhood from 1984-2008

Tanya Byker, University of Michigan

There has been considerable debate in the recent literature about whether there is an increasing trend in highly educated women dropping out of work to care for children — an opt-out revolution. I use unique features of the of Survey of Income and Program Participation--a large nationally representative sample, longitudinal structure, monthly labor force outcomes, and repeated panels--to conduct a dynamic analysis of opting-out that is currently missing in the literature. I use three-year event studies to compare labor force outcomes of women who gave birth in the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s. I find substantial and sustained opting-out of mothers in all education categories over the last three decades. But is this a revolution? Three decades of behavior suggest that little has changed—-it is an opt-out continuation. Given the substantial increases in women's college completion, the absence of change is perhaps more puzzling and important.