Benard - “Normative Discrimination and the Motherhood Penalty.” Flashcards
What is the broad idea discussed in this article?
motherhood penalty in wages and related labor market outcomes
Why does this motherhood penalty arise?
employers practice status-based discrimination, stereotyping mothers as less competent and committed to paid work than nonmothers
What is “normative discrimination”? (when does it occur)
Normative discrimination occurs when employers discriminate against mothers because employers believe, perhaps unconsciously, that success in the paid labor market (particularly in jobs traditionally considered masculine) signals stereotypically masculine qualities such as assertiveness or dominance
SO employers think masculine traits = success!
What happens when employed mothers violate normative expectations (ex. being warm/nurturing)?
by showing a high level of competence and commitment to paid work, they
will be disliked and viewed as less warm and more interpersonally hostile
(e.g., more selfish, cold, and devious) than other types of workers
MIGHT influence employers to deny salary/monetary rewards
What is found on studies about the value of pregnant / mother workers?
People rate them as having lower performance
and assume they are less committed
In callback studies, are mother’s treated the same as childfree women?
mothers were called back regarding their applications about half as often as nonmothers.
If discrimination against mothers is based on biased assessments of their performance, is discrimination reduced when mothers definitively prove their competence and commitment?
What do they argue in the text?
Proof of high commitment and competence could improve evaluations of mothers’ performance,
BUT it could also trigger normative discrimination as employers draw on prescriptive stereotypes about appropriate roles for mothers.
What are Descriptive stereotypes?
widely shared beliefs about different traits
and abilities men and women possess
Discrimination based on descriptive
stereotypes occurs when women are seen as unfit or insufficiently competent
to perform a masculine-typed job
What are prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes?
cultural beliefs about what men and women should or should not do
People are sanctioned and evaluated negatively when they don’t follow these norms
How is success in masculine typed jobs different for men and women based on prescriptive norms?
Most high-status jobs are “masculine typed,”
For men: success in high-status masculine-typed jobs is taken as evidence that a person possesses agentic, masculine
qualities
For woman: success in a masculine-typed
job thus signals both that she is competent and that she is in violation of prescriptive gender norms
What underlies prescriptive stereotypes?
ideology of separate spheres
Creates: widely accepted cultural beliefs prescribing domestic responsibilities and proscribing labor market achievement for mothers
What is “Intensive mothering”?
Does this work with the Idea worker?
mothers invest extremely high levels of time and resources in their children
Does not work with ideal worker, who needs to be available 24/7
How are men perceived when they become fathers?
professional men tend to be viewed as more mature and stable when they become fathers and thus more suited for upper-level management positions
one study found that mothers were evaluated as less nurturing when they worked full-time compared to part-time.
Another study found students evaluated a manager as less fair when she was presented as pregnant
Do fathers experience something similar?
We would not expect men to be seen as less
nurturing when they work full-time, because full-time work and fatherhood are culturally considered to be part of the “package deal” defining manhood
stereotypes may actually benefit fathers
What are the methods used in this study?
participants evaluated a pair of
job applications for a midlevel marketing job. The study manipulated:
- applicant sex category (male or female),
- parental status (parent or nonparent),
- level of ambiguity of past workplace performance
Was the Motherhood Penalty found under Low Performance Ambiguity?
RESULTS
when the applicants were presented as highly successful, there were no significant differences in female participants’ ratings of competence for mothers compared
to nonmothers or fathers (mothers still rated as less competent and committed tho)
Highly successful mothers were perceived
as significantly less likable than highly successful fathers
- Successful women penalized on warmth, and likability
Was the Motherhood Penalty found under Moderate Performance Ambiguity?
RESULTS
mothers experience status-based discrimination under conditions of moderate performance ambiguity
Mothers seen as less competent and less committed
mothers were not penalized on warmth, likability, or hostility (as this is usually seen in male typed high status jobs)
What is the primary contribution of this study?
to identify normative discrimination as a new theoretical mechanism contributing to the motherhood penalty in wages
