Opinion – Michael França: Women lose out by reproducing the species

Children take work. Despite this being common sense, many realize the real dimension of the challenge only when they have it. When birth occurs, even if it has been planned, new daily demands arise that are difficult to be reconciled with the hectic modern way of life. If those responsible for raising the child are the traditional duo consisting of a man and a woman, the mother will tend to assume most of the care.

In several countries, recent studies have shown that having children is one of the main reasons for the gender wage gap. While there is an effect of discrimination and other factors in determining the earnings gap between men and women in the labor market, much of the inequality stems from motherhood.

Those without children tend to see their earnings increase at a rate similar to that of men. Those who become mothers, by choice or not, have the time dedicated to caring for their children as a professional disadvantage. Your choices regarding the job market change. They usually offer fewer hours and exchange promising professional options for those that offer greater flexibility.

It is also not uncommon for women to abandon their careers to accompany their husbands. Many of them just reproduce their mothers’ behavior patterns.

Women are trapped in a cycle that feeds back over time. Employers may anticipate that they will have children and start handing them simpler roles. At home, the logic of many couples is that the one who earns the least will be responsible for household chores.

Having children is an individual choice. But in doing so, the social norms that tend to govern our conduct force women to absorb a high share of the cost of reproducing the species. To overcome gender inequality, advances are needed.

Female participation in the labor market is typically higher in nations that have adopted measures to help raise children. Furthermore, to avoid reproducing traditional gender roles, men need to be more cooperative.

Each country needs to find a solution taking into account the cultural differences in its context. However, implementing interventions in this area is not trivial. Many of them do not work or simply have an unfavorable cost-benefit ratio.

In turn, although having children has benefits, some of which are difficult to measure, the difficulty of reconciling a career and motherhood makes many women give up having them. The impact of this on the fertility rate is significant and creates a challenge that goes beyond the issue of gender inequality.

An important part of the transmission of knowledge takes place in the family context. Parents can be considered as our first teachers. Those who are born into environments whose parents have a high level of education also have a high chance of achieving a high level of education.

In the Brazilian context, in 2015, according to research carried out by Suzana Cavenaghi and José Eustaquio Alves, the fertility rate among women with more than 12 years of study was 1.18 (“Fecundidade e Dinâmica da População Brasileira”, 2018).

This fact has negative repercussions on the intertemporal accumulation of human capital and reflects on the country’s growth. Thus, it is necessary to expand the possibilities for women to reconcile career and motherhood beyond the dimension of gender inequality. It is also an important means of advancing socio-economic development.

This text is a tribute to the song “Triste,louza ou má”, by Andrei Kozyreff, Juliana Strassacapa, Mateo Ugarte, Rafael Gomes and Sebastián Ugarte, performed by Francisco, el Hombre.