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.
生孩子对妇女的收入有负面影响。正如最近的诺贝尔经济学奖得主克劳迪娅-戈尔丁所做的研究显示，这种影响不仅在孩子出生后的短期内存在，还将贯穿她们的一生。
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，成为父亲的男性被认为是自立和果断的。在工作中，他们往往会得到更多的机会和报酬。
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.
在英国，这种 "母职惩罚 "还包括怀孕歧视、高昂的育儿成本以及无效的弹性工作政策。然而，我们对它如何延伸到工作质量方面仍然知之甚少。
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.
我和同事们一起开展了一项研究，以进一步探讨这种 "母职惩罚"。利用英国家庭纵向调查中 15,877 名雇员的数据，我们调查了有孩子的女性所从事的工作类型，并与有子女的父亲以及没有子女的女性进行了比较。
Poor-quality jobs
劣质工作
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.
我们特别关注了工作质量，包括培训机会、晋升前景、对日常工作的控制、福利、工作时间和工作与生活的平衡等因素。众所周知，劣质工作，如那些要求高、控制力低和灵活性有限的工作，会对身心健康造成损害。对于职场父母来说，这些问题尤其令人担忧，因为它们可能会对子女产生溢出效应。
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.
我们发现了一种明显的母职惩罚。母亲在高质量工作中的比例偏低，而高质量工作的特点包括工作与生活的良好平衡、工作时间和工作任务可控。
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.
尤其是学龄儿童的母亲更有可能从事低质量的工作。与男性同胞和没有子女的妇女相比，她们从事高质量工作的可能性更小。
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，我们的模型还考察了人们所从事的行业和职业。这表明，即使与从事类似工作的其他人相比，有子女的妇女也会受到影响。
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.
我们的研究结果还表明，母亲和父亲在薪酬、职业机会和灵活性等方面的就业取舍是完全不同的。
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.
我们发现，母亲更有可能从事在培训机会和前景方面得分较低的工作，但她们对工作性质和时间的控制程度很高。这些工作通常是兼职。有孩子上小学的母亲的情况尤其如此。近三分之一的人从事这样的工作。
Trading promotion for flexibility?
用晋升换取灵活性？
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.
看到这些结果，我们可能会认为，母亲们 "选择 "了牺牲回报和前景，以满足子女的工作需要，而父亲们则选择优先考虑养家糊口，即使这意味着与子女相处的时间减少。事实上，与父亲身份最相关的工作的特点是工作时间长，同时有良好的发展机会。
But these trade-offs are not inevitable. They are also not desired by all parents.
但这些取舍并非不可避免。也不是所有家长都希望这样。
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.
正如我们在之前的研究中发现的那样，母亲们可能会觉得她们签订的兼职合同阻碍了她们理想中的职业发展。 如果她们面临的工作量更适合全职工作，那么兼职工作时间甚至可能无法帮助她们找到平衡，从而可能导致工作过度而收益甚微。
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，我们的研究表明，母亲们可能并没有用职业发展来换取灵活性。主要是母亲们从事的低质量工作既缺乏灵活性,也很少有职业发展机会。这意味着许多母亲实际上比没有孩子的妇女更难获得灵活性。
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.
各种形式的工作质量中的 "母职惩罚"，再加上高昂的育儿成本和伴侣的长时间工作等压力，很可能会造成职业母亲的压力和倦怠。在解决这一问题的过程中，雇主可以发挥重要作用，除了解决薪酬平等问题外，还可以在工作的整体体验中促进性别平等。
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，尽管支持职场父母的福利很重要，但也需要采取更具体的行动，比如公开向兼职人员提供重要的晋升机会，以及真正承诺有效的弹性工作制。
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.
诸如此类的策略不仅能表明雇主致力于将父母从过时的角色中解放出来，还能帮助他们留住大量人才。雇主和政府都需要清醒地认识到职业母亲在获得有意义和公平的就业机会方面所面临的明显劣势，并且认真对待 "母职惩罚"问题。
