We use Germany’s 2007 parental benefit reform to investigate how extensions of child-related employment interruptions affect career trajectories of highly educated women up to ten years after first childbirth. To this, we consider employment and earnings, but also job quality and leadership. Based on linked administrative and bibliometric data covering doctoral students and doctorate holders who became first-time mothers between 2004 and 2009, we apply a difference-in-difference inspired event study design with dynamic treatment effects depending on first child’s age. We find that the introduction of earnings-related parental benefits without eligibility criteria foster short-term employment interruptions without negative consequences for regular employment in the medium- and long-term. For achieving a high income, we observe a similar pattern with even partly positive reform effects in later years. However, when it comes to jobs in a leadership position, longer employment interruptions after childbirth seem to hamper career progress. This overall negative pattern is not driven by timing of first birth relative to doctorate completion or different work contexts proxied by scientific fields or pre-birth employment in the academic sector.