Having a child is bad for a woman's earnings. This is not only in the immediate period after the birth, but across her lifetime – as shown in research by recent economics Nobel prize-winner Claudia Goldin.
生孩子對婦女的收入有負面影響。正如最近的諾貝爾經濟學獎得主克勞迪婭-高爾丁所做的研究顯示，這種影響不僅在孩子出生後的短期記憶體在，還將貫穿她們的一生。
On the other hand, men who become fathers are perceived as self-reliant and decisive. And they are often rewarded at work with opportunities and pay.
另一方面，成為父親的男性被認為是自立和果斷的。在工作中，他們往往會得到更多的機會和報酬。
Campaigns by groups like Pregnant Then Screwed make explicit that, in the UK, this 「motherhood penalty」 extends to pregnancy discrimination, the extortionate costs of childcare and ineffective flexible working policies. Yet we still know little about how it extends to job quality.
在英國，這種 "母職懲罰 "還包括懷孕歧視、高昂的育兒成本以及無效的彈性工作政策。然而，我們對它如何延伸到工作品質方面仍然知之甚少。
Together with colleagues, I have carried out research to explore this 「motherhood penalty」 further. Using data from 15,877 employees from the UK Household Longitudinal Survey, we investigated the kinds of jobs women with children do, and how this compares with fathers and women without children.
我和同事們一起開展了一項研究，以進一步探討這種 "母職懲罰"。利用英國家庭縱向調查中 15,877 名雇員的數據，我們調查了有孩子的女性所從事的工作型別，並與有子女的父親以及沒有子女的女性進行了比較。
Poor-quality jobs
劣質工作
We looked in particular at job quality, covering factors like training opportunities, promotion prospects, control over day to day tasks, benefits, working hours and work-life balance. Poor-quality jobs, such as those characterised by high demands, low control and limited flexibility, are known to be damaging for wellbeing. They are particularly concerning when it comes to working parents, due to the likely spillover effects on children.
我們特別關註了工作品質，包括培訓機會、晉升前景、對日常工作的控制、福利、工作時間和工作與生活的平衡等因素。眾所周知，劣質工作，如那些要求高、控制力低和靈活性有限的工作，會對身心健康造成損害。對於職場父母來說，這些問題尤其令人擔憂，因為它們可能會對子女產生溢位效應。
We found a clearcut motherhood penalty. Mothers are under-represented in high-quality jobs – those with attributes including good work-life balance, control over working hours and control over job tasks.
我們發現了一種明顯的母職懲罰。母親在高品質工作中的比例偏低，而高品質工作的特點包括工作與生活的良好平衡、工作時間和工作任務可控。
Mothers of school-age children, in particular, are more likely to work in poor-quality jobs. They are less likely to have high-quality jobs, compared both to their male counterparts and to women without children.
尤其是學齡兒童的母親更有可能從事低品質的工作。與男性同胞和沒有子女的婦女相比，她們從事高品質工作的可能性更小。
What's more, our models controlled for the sector and occupation people worked in. This suggests that women with children suffer a penalty even when compared to other people in similar jobs.
此外，我們的模型還考察了人們所從事的行業和職業。這表明，即使與從事類似工作的其他人相比，有子女的婦女也會受到影響。
Our findings also show that the trade-offs made by mothers and fathers in their employment situations – on things like pay, career opportunities and flexibility – are rather different.
我們的研究結果還表明，母親和父親在薪酬、職業機會和靈活性等方面的就業取舍是完全不同的。
We found that mothers were also much more likely to have jobs that scored poorly on access to training and prospects, yet had high levels of control over the nature and timing of their work. These jobs were often part-time. This is especially the case among mothers of children attending primary school. Almost a third hold jobs like this.
我們發現，母親更有可能從事在培訓機會和前景方面得分較低的工作，但她們對工作性質和時間的控制程度很高。這些工作通常是兼職。有孩子上小學的母親的情況尤其如此。近三分之一的人從事這樣的工作。
Trading promotion for flexibility?
用晉升換取靈活性？
It might be possible to look at these results and think that mothers have 「chosen」 to sacrifice rewards and prospects in favour of working around their children's needs – while dads choose to prioritise breadwinning even if it means less time with their kids. Indeed, the jobs most associated with fatherhood are characterised by long working hours combined with good opportunities for progression.
看到這些結果，我們可能會認為，母親們 "選擇 "了犧牲報酬和前景，以滿足子女的工作需要，而父親們則選擇優先考慮養家糊口，即使這意味著與子女相處的時間減少。事實上，與父親身份最相關的工作的特點是工作時間長，同時有良好的發展機會。
But these trade-offs are not inevitable. They are also not desired by all parents.
但這些取舍並非不可避免。也不是所有家長都希望這樣。
As we found in earlier research, mothers can feel their contracted part-time hours block them from desired career progression. Part-time hours may not even help them find balance if they face a workload better suited to full-time hours, potentially leading to overwork for little gain.
正如我們在之前的研究中發現的那樣，母親們可能會覺得她們簽訂的兼職合約阻礙了她們理想中的職業發展。 如果她們面臨的工作量更適合全職工作，那麽兼職工作時間甚至可能無法幫助她們找到平衡，從而可能導致工作過度而收益甚微。
What's more, our research shows that mothers may not be trading career progression for flexibility. The poor-quality jobs primarily filled by mothers offer very little in the way of either flexibility or career progression. This means many mothers actually have worse access to flexibility than women without children.
更重要的是，我們的研究表明，母親們可能並沒有用職業發展來換取靈活性。主要是母親們從事的低品質工作既缺乏靈活性,也很少有職業發展機會。這意味著許多母親實際上比沒有孩子的婦女更難獲得靈活性。
The motherhood penalty in job quality, in all its guises, combined with pressures such as the high cost of childcare and partners' long hours, may well contribute to stress and burnout among working mothers. Employers have an important role to play in tackling this by promoting gender equality in the holistic experience of work, in addition to addressing pay equality.
各種形式的工作品質中的 "母職懲罰"，再加上高昂的育兒成本和伴侶的長時間工作等壓力，很可能會造成職業母親的壓力和倦怠。在解決這一問題的過程中，雇主可以發揮重要作用，除了解決薪酬平等問題外，還可以在工作的整體體驗中促進性別平等。
But while supporting the wellbeing of working parents is important, more concrete actions like openly making key promotions available to part-timers and genuine commitments to effective flexible working are also needed.
但是，盡管支持職場父母的福利很重要，但也需要采取更具體的行動，比如公開向兼職人員提供重要的晉升機會，以及真正承諾有效的彈性工作制。
Strategies like these would not only signify employers' commitment to freeing parents from outdated roles, but also help them retain a vast talent pool. Both employers and governments need to wake up to the stark disadvantages faced by working mothers in accessing meaningful and fair employment, and start taking the motherhood penalty seriously.
諸如此類的策略不僅能表明雇主致力於將父母從過時的角色中解放出來，還能幫助他們留住大量人才。雇主和政府都需要清醒地認識到職業母親在獲得有意義和公平的就業機會方面所面臨的明顯劣勢，並且認真對待 "母職懲罰"問題。
