Author: Alexandra Killewald, Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan

For many women in the U.S. and around the world, motherhood comes with career costs. Raising children tends to lead to lower wages and fewer work hours for mothers – but not fathers – in the United States and around the world. As a sociologist, I study how family relationships can shape your economic circumstances. […]

Women in the U.S. typically earned 85% as much as men for every hour they spent working in 2024. However, working women are faring much better than their moms and grandmothers did 40 years ago. In the mid-1980s, women were making only 65% as much as men for every hour of paid work. Women’s wages […]