Did K-12 school closure and reopening policies in response to COVID-19 enlarge the gender employment gap?

Authors

Xinyi WangFollow

Document Type

Honors Project - Open Access

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic hits female workers the most. This impact on the United States’s labor market can be attributed to the limited availability of childcare and schooling options (Stefania and Jiyeon, 2021). With limited resources for childcare and schooling, parents, especially mothers, had to exit the labor force or reduce working hours to stay at home and take care of their children. My study will contribute to understanding the effect of the child penalty, especially under the COVID-19 pandemic and study the impact of school closure and reopening policies. Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) combined with school closure and reopening data, I conduct both static and dynamic analyses at the extensive (i.e. employed or not) and intensive (i.e. # of hours worked) margins. I find that for a worker, who has at least one child in the household, compared to a worker with the same occupation, in the same industry and similar location is around 76% less likely to be employed when schools are closed while a female worker tends to be 34% more likely to be employed than a male worker after the school has been reopened.

Recommended Citation

Wang, Xinyi, "Did K-12 school closure and reopening policies in response to COVID-19 enlarge the gender employment gap?" (2022). Economics Honors Projects. 114.
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/economics_honors_projects/114