The Glory of Motherhood Shackles Economic Development

Abstract

In some societies, the glory of motherhood has continued since the Malthusian era of high birth rates and poverty traps. The Unified Growth Theory explains how women’s participation at work for earning increases suddenly following the demographic transition at the end of the Malthusian phase. However, Indian data on economic development poses a puzzle. Despite the recent economic growth and rising education levels, India still has one of the world’s lowest female labor force participation rates (FLFPR). We explore if the concern for safety and stigma from crime against women (CAW) that tarnishes the motherhood glory can explain this puzzle. We assume that the depth of this gender-biased (GB) norm varies across different Indian states, affecting the labor force participation of both genders. However, we cannot directly measure them. So, we design an algorithm to measure it indirectly by first investigating how different types of CAW affect the gender gaps in participation. Then, by calculating the time-invariant factors in a state-fixed-effects regression, we measure the depth of gender bias in multiple ways. We find significantly negative correlations between our estimated measures of GB and the gender equality statistics reported by McKinsey Global Institute and other survey data. We see that the shackle of the motherhood-first norm depresses women’s participation, and higher women’s participation raises male backlash against women’s quest for breaking that shackle.