Professor Kadri Täht: A child is born to both parents, but the wage gap often falls to the mother alone

University of Tartu Professor Kadri Täht explains why the birth of a child changes the lives of mothers and fathers very differently. Despite both parents loving the child equally, the larger share of childcare responsibilities often falls to the mother, which creates a gender-based wage gap.

Kadri Täht, a sociology professor at the University of Tartu, draws attention to a phenomenon well-known to Estonian families: although a child is born to both mother and father and both are prepared to care for the child, the birth of a child often changes the lives of parents very differently.

Who bears the greater burden?

The arrival of a baby brings sleepless nights, numerous daily duties and great responsibility – and all of this is often distributed unequally. Statistics show that women assume a significantly larger share of childcare responsibilities in a child's early years, which often means stepping back from work or reducing working hours.

This so-called "motherhood penalty" does not end with the early childhood period. Women who have taken career breaks or worked part-time due to childcare responsibilities earn significantly less decades later than men of the same age with equivalent work experience, according to research.

Why does the wage gap emerge?

According to Professor Täht, the wage gap is not merely a question of discrimination – it is a systemic problem that begins with how society values and distributes the roles of caregiving and employment. As long as parental leave remains overwhelmingly a privilege of mothers and the labour market does not treat working parents equally, the wage gap will persist.

The situation in Estonia is particularly acute: while the state has introduced the option of paternal leave, in reality fathers use it significantly less often than mothers. This reproduces a cycle in which career interruption by mothers becomes the norm, while the same for fathers remains the exception.