The short or long end of the stick? Mothers’ social position and self-employment status from a comparative perspective

Women with dependent children have repeatedly been shown to be more likely to be self-employed than other women. The mumpreneurship thesis explains this motherhood effect as a preference-based strategy to meet both good worker and good mother norms. The disadvantaged worker thesis argues that mothers in weak labour market positions are pushed into self-employment because of work–family conflict. Exploring patterns of motherhood effects across 23 high- and middle-income countries, I argue that the mumpreneurship and disadvantaged worker theses should not be considered as conflicting hypotheses, but rather as addressing separate social position groups. I identify four clusters of countries where either one, both or neither of the two hypotheses can be confirmed. Country-level analyses indicate that more negative attitudes towards housewives are associated with larger motherhood premiums for women in high social positions, whereas higher enrolment and smaller classes in pre-primary education increase the motherhood premium for all groups.