Unpacking the parenthood penalty. How parenthood and perceptions of self-efficacy impact on politicians’ turnover

Recently, scholars have turned their attention to the impact of parenthood on political participation. As a critical life course transition, parenthood and the care work it entails are found to have a negative impact on levels of political interest and participation. Unsurprisingly, the negative effects of parenthood on political participation disproportionately affect women more than men, potentially contributing to the persistent underrepresentation of women in politics. Research results are clear: concerns about parental responsibilities prevent women from running for office; difficulties in balancing family and political work are considered as one of the problems faced by women politicians, particularly in the absence of “gender-friendly" political institutions. As a result, mothers’ political careers tend to be shorter than those of fathers and those of women without child-raising responsibilities. Finally, those women who do make it to the top of the political hierarchy generally have fewer children than their male counterparts. In this paper, we aim to extend our knowledge by focusing on the effect of parenthood on politicians' perceived self-efficacy as officeholders. While the literature has shown that women politicians are more likely than men to leave politics when their influence in the political process stalls, the relationship between parenthood and self-efficacy has been overlooked. We ask: does the responsibility of parenting affect the self-efficacy of male and female MPs differently? We focus on the case of Norway. Norway's widespread culture of gender equality and welfare state provision for childcare would suggest that childcare responsibilities are evenly shared between parents, making it a least likely case for studying the potential impact of parenthood on gender political inequalities. However, recent research has shown the existence of a 'child penalty' for female Norwegian politicians. This evidence calls for a closer examination of the mechanisms behind such a penalty. We draw on original survey data collected as part of the Norwegian Representative Panel distributed after local elections held in September 2023. Our results help to shed light on different conditions that could break the negative cycle that makes parenthood a burden for political engagement.