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Social Mobility from a Gender Perspective: Dynamics of Mothers’ Roles in Daughters’ Labor Market Performance

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Abstract

This study empirically examines the roles that mothers play in daughters’ income across different birth cohorts. While existing studies mostly focus on the relationship between fathers’ roles and sons’ status, we test two different maternal roles in explaining daughters’ performance. The first role is based on the mirroring effect; i.e., the positive effect of a mother’s stronger position in the labor market on her daughter(s). Meanwhile, the second role is based on the educational manager effect; i.e., the negative effect of mother’s labor market participation. This research focuses on South Korea by utilizing the Korean Labor Panel Study. In order to investigate the cohort effect, subjects born between 1975 and 1979 were allocated to birth cohort 1, while subjects born between 1980 and 1990 were allocated to birth cohort 2. This study found that father’s income had a significant effect in both cohorts, though it was a bit weaker in the second cohort. Interestingly, the study’s ‘educational manager mom’ hypothesis was confirmed in the first cohort, whereas the mirroring effect was verified in the second cohort. These findings imply that daughters tend to be increasingly inspired by their mothers as role models over time. An increase in mothers’ mirroring effect could be seen as positive; however, it could also suggest a decrease in social mobility. Ultimately, this study found that further policy reforms are required to facilitate social mobility and improve gender equality in the labor market.

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Availability of data and material

Data from Korean Labor Panel Study (1st Wave ~ 18th Wave) is used in this paper. The full dataset and documentation can be downloaded from https://www.kli.re.kr/klips/selectBbsNttList.do?bbsNo=50&key=163.

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Funding

This work is supported by the Ministry of Education in the Republic of Korea (NRF-2021S1A5A2A01070179).

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  1. Department of Public Administration, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

    Young Jun Choi & Ji Hyun Kim

  2. Department of Social Welfare, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea

    Yun Young Kim

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Young Jun Choi, the first author designed the very structure of the article and completed the writing-up under the cooperation with co authors. Yun Young Kim, who contributed in methodology and completing the writing-up as the corresponding author. Ji Hyun Kim was in charge of examining analysis results, reviewing English, and organizing references.

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Choi, Y.J., Kim, J.H. & Kim, Y.Y. Social Mobility from a Gender Perspective: Dynamics of Mothers’ Roles in Daughters’ Labor Market Performance. Soc Indic Res 168, 119–138 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-023-03114-9

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