The Motherhood Penalty
Judi Casey June 30th, 2008
Does being a mother negatively affect career advancement and opportunity? We interviewed Joan Williams about family responsibility discrimination. In the interview, Joan mentioned that a “recent and influential study showed that mothers are 79% less likely to be hired, 100% less likely to be promoted, and also are assumed to be less competent and committed than women without children. (Correll, S.J., Bernard, S., & Paik, I. (2007). Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty? American Journal of Sociology, 112, 1297-1338).“
Some employers have made women’s advancement and the retention of women a priority issue. Joan’s comment made me wonder if organizations should be focused on women’s advancement or mothers’ advancement and the retention of mothers or other caregivers. What do you think? Is “women” too broad, as it may be that it is a certain group of women who experience difficulty or more challenges than other women?
[...] Judi Casey at The Sloan Work and Family Research Network posts here about a study indicating that mothers are 79% less likely to be hired and 100% less likely to be [...]
[...] The other issue I have with the idea that mothers make better managers is that it skews the reality of the workplace. In fact, motherhood is a liability not and asset in most organizations. According to Moms Rising, mothers earn 27% less than their equally qualified male counterparts. According to Joan Williams of WorkLifeLaw, women are 79% less likely to be hired and 100% less likely to be promoted. [...]
You might be interested in a recent article in the Boston Globe, “The Female Advantage which found that organizations with more women in senior and management positions have higher financial success. Here is some data to change the view of women’s employment from a liability to an advantage:
http://tinyurl.com/cwbjnm
“100% less likely to be promoted” - I find that absolutely shocking!
It is unfortunate but mothers do have a disadvantage in the work place, especially new moms who recently gave birth and have returned to work. A customer of ours used to work at a high-tech company and she had returned to work after her maternity leave. She was let go in the first round of layoffs 2 months later… along with several other new moms which made up about 20% of the group that got laid off… and that was just her department.
Another friend of ours who was on maternity leave got a call from her manager asking her if she could return to work sooner because “they realized how great her contribution was to their team” and how they were shorthanded without her. Well, she did return to work earlier than scheduled and she was laid off 3 weeks after.
Being a mother shouldn’t have any say in whether they are hired or promoted.