Shelley Correll, an associate professor at Cornell University, is researching something she's calling the "motherhood penalty," that is, the professional disadvantage that women experience because of their status as mothers. Not only is there (still) a large gap between what men and women earn, but Correll's research is showing that women who are mothers earn substantially less than women who do not have children.
Something that I immediately thought about was how differently mothers and fathers are perceived. I was pleased to see that Correll addresses this in her article regarding the "motherhood penalty." writing that "Being a good father and a good employee are part of the 'package deal' defining what it means to be a man. Therefore, since the 'good father' and 'ideal worker' are not perceived to be in tension, being a good parent is not predicated to lead to lower workplace evaluations for fathers."
Not so for women. Though Correll is careful to note in her conclusions that while there is a definite wage disadvantage women experience for every child they have, her research does not show (at this time) that discrimination against mothers causes a decrease in this wage disadvantage.
From The Clayman Institute for Gender Research's article:
"In one test, Correll and her colleagues found that evaluators
consistently ranked mothers as less competent and less committed workers
than childless women but ranked fathers as more competent and committed
than non-fathers. In a follow-up study, the researchers responded to
more than 600 newspaper ads for high-level business positions by sending
out fake resumes for two equally qualified candidates that varied only
in very subtle references to parenting activities. They found that the
childless female candidate was twice as likely to be called in for an
interview as the mother. Fathers experienced no call-back penalty."
In fact, according to Correll's article, fathers were offered higher salaries over childless men as they were seen as "more committed to paid work."
Questions: Has anyone experienced any discrimination in your job because of pregnancy or your status as a mother? If you don't have children, is this something that you worry about if you plan to start a family? And for those mommas currently at home, do you have concerns about what getting back into the workplace will be like for you?
[Thanks to Adventures in Boogieville, who also linked to this video]
It has to be some sort of male breadwinner narrative going on, right? Like the father is earning money to feed his family, but the mother is just working for some extra spending money because of course her husband is the one earning the real money.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Fascinating stuff, Rachel.
I think it also has to do with the notion that women are more likely and expected to make sacrifices for children as their careers are seen to be less important than their male partners. Women must be more nurturing and be the primary parent, where perhaps employers assume that men won't put their families first.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think employers are a afraid of breasts and estrogen. Just saying.
That's a pretty interesting study and it's really unfortunate that moms get penalized like that. I think women have the reputation of being so focused on their kids (especially babies) that they're distracted from other things. And I think men have the reputation of being more driven, because they're freaked out about providing for another person. I'm not saying that's the way it always is, or the way it necessarily should be, but from what I've seen, when a baby is on the way women start dreaming in pastel colors and buy name books, and men go cross-eyed trying to figure how much this baby is going to cost. Do you think there are biological differences in how we respond to having children (I mean women do have unbelievable hormonal changes during pregnancy) or do you think it's the society we come from?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think many (if not all) of the differences we see in men and women surrounding the birth of the baby are societal. Human beings are so malleable, and we replicate the roles and attitudes that we associate our identities with.
ReplyDeleteWe know that the woman's body releases oxytocin and prolactin when breastfeeding, which help her relax and bond with her baby. But fathers' hormones also change with the birth of a child. Cortisol (stress hormone) spikes 4-6 weeks after a man learns he will be a father (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-15-daddybrain15_cv_N.htm), and testosterone drops by about a third after the birth of the child (http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2007/06/stretch_marks_for_dads.html) - and I feel I read somewhere that women's testerone levels increase after the birth of a child, but I could be wrong on that.
So, yes, there are biological, hormonal differences between men and women with the birth of a child, but I believe that what we do with these differences is more a result of what we believe our roles as women and men. If it were seen as "masculine" to decorate as a hobby, men would start looking at swatches and cribs too when cortisol kicks in. As it is, society tells men that they are supposed to be the providers (and most men in the United States do have larger incomes and fewer take paternity leaves or become stay-at-home dads), so the turn-up of cortisol may result in a man taking his career more seriously, or worrying about how to "provide" (as he believes is his role).