Between Career and Motherhood: Factors Affecting Women’s Career Trajectories After Childbirth in Russia

Changing Societies and Personalities. 2022. Vol. 6. No. 4. P. 804–822.

Elena N. Gasiukova

The paper puts forward the idea that a woman’s class (occupational

position) contributes to the formation of certain orientations and values,

which further determine a woman’s choice in favor of particular labor

and life trajectory after the childbirth. The authors follow the career

trajectory of women after the childbirth in Russia to determine which

women are more career-oriented and which are more family-oriented.

For this, “Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey–Higher School of

Economics” (RLMS—HSE) panel data from 2001–2021 are employed.

Drawing on a six-year period—the year before the birth and four years

after the childbirth—the authors construct the sequences of various

status changes (employed, unemployed, parental leave) and identify

the featured patterns of mothers’ career trajectories. The authors also

analyze the number of years it took for women to return to the labor

market after the childbirth. It is assumed that a later entry into the labor

market suggests that women are less career-oriented, and vice versa.

Additionally, the factors affecting the decision to return to the labor

market earlier or later are evaluated. The results of the implemented

analysis (an ordinal logistic regression and a multinomial regression)

show that women from the higher class tend to return to the labor

market quickly, while women from the middle and working class delay

entry into the workforce or refuse to develop a career.

Keywords: profession, women, class, career trajectories, childbirth, attitudes to motherhood, RLMS—HSE