The Relationship Between Fertility Timing and Career Attainments of Women

Over the past forty years women have made significant advancements in the labor force through the elimination of gender barriers and increases in earnings potential and human capital accumulation. In this paper I attempt to analyze how the relationship between fertility timing and the career attainments of women has evolved in the face of these achievements. I develop a model using data from the 2005 survey of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics analyzing the effects of age at first birth on wages and human capital accumulation for women aged 35-50 at in the year 2005. Using the results from my analysis I compare them with previous studies examining similar relationships on an earlier cohort of women to examine how the magnitude of these relationships have changed. I find that evidence to support an increase in the wage differentials for working women and a decrease in the gap of human capital accumulation (measured by years of education). The results are consistent with theory and suggest that age at first birth acts both directly on wages as well as indirectly through human capital accumulation.