A ‘potential motherhood’ penalty? A longitudinal analysis of the wage gap based on potential fertility in Germany and the UK

Gender equity has increased in many dimensions over the past decades: from increased efforts in fostering the defamilizating potential of welfare states to more egalitarian attitudes towards women’s roles, and finally to an enhanced female presence in the public sphere, both in the labour market and in the political decision-making dimension. Whether these trends have led to material (economic) gains for women, and if they have affected class-based stratification, remain debated issues. Against this background, this article explores the consequences of increased macro-level gender equity on gender- and socioeconomic class-based income disparities. Three novel macro-level indices are built to capture the main theoretical dimensions of gender equity: (i) welfare, (ii) attitudinal, and (iii) structural. By relying on several macro-level indicators and EU-SILC cross-sectional data, our analysis covers 24 European countries for the period 2004–2019, providing extensive explorative evidence on the consequences of gender-egalitarian trends for social stratification. Results from two-step multilevel models suggest that, although each dimension shows a specific relationship with gender and class income inequalities, aggregate gender equity policies appear overall unable to substantially modify the existing structure of class-based inequalities: upper-classes and men maintain their economic advantages over the other social categories.