How do decisions to partner and parent affect the work lives of American men and women? A long line of research in the social sciences suggests that men reap wage benefits from marriage and fatherhood, while women experience wage losses when they become mothers. One explanation for this gender disparity has been that different-sex partners divide labor, with men taking primary responsibility for paid labor and wives for unpaid labor.

This historic explanation may not fit the experiences of contemporary American couples, many of whom are dual-career. In a recent American Sociological Review article, Assistant Professor Alexandra Killewald and Postdoctoral Fellow Margaret Gough demonstrate that both men and women experience wage increases when they marry, countering the expectation that marriage only increases men’s wages at the expense of their wives’ careers.

While marriage has similar effects on men’s and women’s wages, parenthood does not. Motherhood has wage costs, while fatherhood is associated with wage gains. Furthermore, while motherhood has similar consequences for married and unmarried women, Killewald documents in a second American Sociological Review article that the wage bonus for fatherhood is confined to married fathers living with their biological children.

As more couples are dual-earner and more children do not live with both biological parents, the old model of household specialization between husbands and wives provides an increasingly incomplete picture of how contemporary Americans navigate the competing demands of work and family. New theories of partnership, parenthood, and their intersection with employment are needed to reflect the experiences of the ever-evolving American family.