The Gender Gap in Voluntary Quits

Women earn less than men. One common explanation is women’s propensity to interrupt their careers, often voluntarily, more so than men. Yet, the determinants and trends of this gender gap in quit behavior has not been given much attention in the literature. Using the Current Population Survey and both NLSY 1979 and 1997 cohorts, I measure the gender gap in quit behavior and considers if it is changing over time. I also determine whether parenthood in particular affects quit decisions differently between men and women. After controlling for demographic and job characteristics, individual and geographic fixed effects, and also local unemployment rates, I find in both CPS and NLSY data that parenthood affects male and female voluntary turnover differently, and that the gender gap in voluntary turnover has declined over time.