Correll, Shelley J., Stephen Benard, and In Paik. 2007. “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” Flashcards
IV
parental status
key problem + question
- In the workplace, mothers experience a disadvantage in rewards like pay and perceived competence
○ One study found that, compared to otherwise equal women managers who were not pregnant, visibly pregnant women were judged to be less committed to their jobs, less dependable, warmer, more emotional- Key question
Why would being a parent lead to disadvantages in the workplace for women (but not men)?
- Key question
status characteristics theory
Defines a status characteristic as a categorical distinction among people such as a personal attribute (ex. gender) or a role (ex. motherhood) that has attached to it widely held beliefs in the culture that associate greater status worthiness and competence with one category of the distinction
performance expectations
The expectations that group members form for their own and others’ performance on tasks
§ High-status actors are expected to offer more competent performances, so they are often given behavioural and evaluative advantages
Performance expectations imply that people with status disadvantages in groups must work harder and perform better than status-advantaged members to attain status in the group (proving themselves as worthy)
hypotheses
- To the extent mothers are perceived as less committed to work, employers will subtly discriminate against mothers when making evaluations that affect hiring, promotion, and salary decisions
By comparison, they do not expect the same treatment of fathers because cultural understandings of what it means to be a good father are not seen as incompatible with understandings of what it means to be a good worker
how did they manipulate parental status
○ On resumes for the parent
§ hey listed “parent-teacher association coordinator” under the heading “other relevant activities”
§ “mother/father to Tom and Emily, Married to John/Karen”
○ The nonparent
§ Described as only “Married to John/Karen”
Study materials presented applicants as similar across a range of different qualities like career goals, educational history, past work experience, and described them as highly productive
design used
experiments
- Study participants went to the lab individually, read a description of a company hiring for a marketing position, and examined application materials for two applicants who differed on parental status but were otherwise similar
Researchers paired application materials by race and gender to generate four experimental conditions where participants rate one parents and non-parent applicant who are either black men, black women, white men, or white women
how did they measure it
- rated them using a survey: competence, commitment, ability
- then asked salary, likelihood of being promoted, if they recommend hiring
findings for mothers
○ Rated as less competent and less committed than nonmothers
○ Held to harsher performance standards than nonmothers
○ Recommended starting salary was 7.4% less than the starting salary offered to nonmothers
○ Rated as less promotable and less likely endorsed for management
Participants recommended 84% of nonmothers for hire: recommended 47% of mothers for hire
findings for fathers
○ Findings consistent with theoretical predictions of no fatherhood penalty
○ Were actually advantages on some measures.
§ Ex.
□ Applicants who were fathers were rated more committed to their job than nonfathers
□ Were allowed to be late to work more often than nonfathers
Fathers were offered higher status than nonfathers
findings for african-americans
§ African-American applicants were offered 6800$ lower salaries, on average, compared with those offered to white applicants
§ This difference is striking, especially since African-Americans were not judged to be less competent or committed to work, they were simply offered lower salaries
The resumes were the same, except for the first names, as those used in the white scenario descriptions, so qualification differences do not explain this finding
audit study
§ Also conducted an audit study to test for hiring discriminated based on parental status
§ Adapted the application materials from their lab experiment to apply to 600+ real job ads
§ Found that prospective employers called mothers back about half as often as nonmothers
§ Fathers were not disadvantaged in the hiring process (but also not advantaged)
These findings correspond to the lab study, providing converging evidence for the motherhood penalty across two studies employing different methods and samples
