The project examined changes in employment for women at two crucial times: upon the arrival of a newborn and when a child enters compulsory schooling. The work was unique in using longitudinal data to compare the labour market position of women immediately before these critical times with their position afterwards. The range of employment characteristics that we studied is far more extensive than has been considered in previous work, and the ability to analyse wage changes over the critical periods for a given mother is novel. The work also used a control group of men to allow for possible trends in wages and other employment characteristics which coincide with the timing of the arrival of children.