Compared to fathers, mothers take significantly more time off work after childbirth to care for infants and much more often decide not to return. To better understand these gendered outcomes and enable mothers to return to work, over the past decades, research on mothers’ return to work after childbirth has grown exponentially. This research reveals a complex net of factors that affect return decisions and their outcomes. With the aim of providing a systematization of these factors, we conducted a systematic review of the antecedents and outcomes of mothers’ return to work decisions. Based on our comprehensive, interdisciplinary review, we developed a theoretical model that positions the mother as the central actor in return decisions who is, however, situated in a net of structural enablers and constraints. This model comprehensively reflects the interdisciplinary, past work highlighting how external factors on different levels of analysis (country, work, family and friends, child) enable or restrict mothers’ return and explain the gendered outcomes between mothers and fathers. Building on this theoretical model, using a social role theory lens we provide a path forward, as a better understanding of these factors will aid policy, organizations, coworkers, and partners to support mothers return to work after childbirth.
