MOTHERS OCCUPATIONAL-STATUS AND CHILDRENS SCHOOLING

After a long tradition of research on the intergenerational mobility o f men, stratification studies in the late 1970s and 1980s began to inc lude women in their analyses. Most studies, however, still rely primar ily on characteristics of fathers to measure family background status. Using a large national cross-sectional data set, this study describes the influence of mother's occupational status on children's education al attainment. I compare the strengths of maternal and paternal influe nces and use birth cohorts to examine whether the relative influence o f mothers has changed. The main findings are: Maternal occupational st atus has a strong effect on schooling, this effect is independent of f ather's education and occupation, it persists through the schooling ca reer, and it is as important for sons as for daughters. Some evidence suggests that the influence of mother's occupation has increased while the influence of father's occupation has decreased. In contrast, moth er's education has always been as important as father's education. In general, the findings underscore the positive effects of maternal labo r force participation on child outcomes through the high-status jobs m any married women now hold. At the same time, this study suggests that the independent influence of mother's socioeconomic status may lead t o an accumulation of educational advantages and disadvantages in subse quent generations, possibly reducing the intergenerational mobility of families.