Social Mobility from a Gender Perspective: Dynamics of Mothers’ Roles in Daughters’ Labor Market Performance

This study empirically examines the roles that mothers play in daughters’ income across different birth cohorts. While existing studies mostly focus on the relationship between fathers’ roles and sons’ status, we test two different maternal roles in explaining daughters’ performance. The first role is based on the mirroring effect; i.e., the positive effect of a mother’s stronger position in the labor market on her daughter(s). Meanwhile, the second role is based on the educational manager effect; i.e., the negative effect of mother’s labor market participation. This research focuses on South Korea by utilizing the Korean Labor Panel Study. In order to investigate the cohort effect, subjects born between 1975 and 1979 were allocated to birth cohort 1, while subjects born between 1980 and 1990 were allocated to birth cohort 2. This study found that father’s income had a significant effect in both cohorts, though it was a bit weaker in the second cohort. Interestingly, the study’s ‘educational manager mom’ hypothesis was confirmed in the first cohort, whereas the mirroring effect was verified in the second cohort. These findings imply that daughters tend to be increasingly inspired by their mothers as role models over time. An increase in mothers’ mirroring effect could be seen as positive; however, it could also suggest a decrease in social mobility. Ultimately, this study found that further policy reforms are required to facilitate social mobility and improve gender equality in the labor market.