Maternity
leave policies have known effects on short-term child outcomes. However, little
is known about the long-run impact of such leaves on women’s health as they
age. This seminar examines whether maternity leave policies have an effect on
women's mental health in older age. Data for women age 50 years and above from
countries in the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) are
linked to data on maternity leave legislation from 1960 onwards. A
difference-in-differences approach that exploits changes over time within
countries in the duration and compensation of maternity leave benefits is
linked to the year women were giving birth to their first child at age 16 to
25. Late-life depressive symptom scores of mothers who were in employment in
the period around the birth of their first child were compared to depression
scores of mothers who were not in employment in the period surrounding the
birth of a first child and, therefore, did not benefit directly from maternity
leave benefits. The findings suggest that a more generous maternity leave
during the birth of a first child is associated with reduced depression
symptoms in late life. This seminar explores how policies experienced in
midlife may have long-run consequences for women’s health and wellbeing.






Speaker:












Lisa Berkman, Thomas
D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and of Epidemiology; Director, Harvard
Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard. T.H. Chan School of
Public Health