ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to study whether there is any negative consequence, in terms of occupational careers, associated with the duration of absence from work/employment per se. Occupational stability is the main impression, largely because Swedish women return to the same job they held before childbirth, a right they are granted within a certain time period through parental leave legislation. Organisational constraint implies that upward or downward moves will be limited for some occupations simply because of ceiling and floor effects. The chapter describes the occupational mobility of mothers who return to employment after a childbirth/parental leave period, and analyses whether women with greater incentives or more resources have greater propensities towards upward mobility. According to theories of social mobility and human capital theory, we would expect it to be more advantageous to return sooner as opposed to later.
