Source : Harvard Business Review - Amy Diehl and Leanne M. Dzubinski
Summary:
Women’s experiences as parents in the workplace are completely different from men’s. Men get a “fatherhood wage premium,” while mothers encounter a “motherhood penalty” in wages and advancement opportunities. One might think that women without children have workplace advantages on a par with their male counterparts. But they don’t. The maternal wall hinders all women’s careers, whether they plan to have children or not.
Women without children face four biases. First, they face the “maybe baby” bias, when women ae not hired or promoted due to an assumption that they would become mothers.
They also experience a “do more” bias, where women with no children found that they were expected to work longer and harder than their peers with children. Third, they face a “pay less” bias, where they are seen as less deserving financially because they were “not working to support a family.” Finally, there is a “never quite right” bias, where women are perceived as less worthy of positions, promotions, and earnings than their male colleagues, whether women want or have children, or not.
In our book Glass Walls, we tell the story of a newspaper employee whose publisher asked her if she planned to have kids. She replied, “Someday.” The publisher responded, “That will be your career.” Subsequently, the publisher moved her around the newsroom, never gave her a promotion, and assigned her to the night shift. She quit. While this employee had no children, her employer upended her job due to her aspiration to have children in the future.
Women’s experiences as parents in the workplace are completely different from men’s. Men get a “fatherhood wage premium,” such that fathers earn more than everyone else, including men without children. However, mothers encounter a “motherhood penalty” in wages and advancement opportunities. Pregnant women experience discrimination to the point that they are often afraid to let their employers know they are expecting.
One might think that women without children, who make up almost half of U.S. women aged 15 to 50, have workplace advantages on a par with their male counterparts. But they don’t. Among women with similar levels of education, non-mothers have the same gender wage gap as mothers. Women don’t have to be mothers or even want children to be affected by a “maternal wall.” Simply being a woman means being viewed as a potential mother — or someone who should be a mother — which is enough to create such a wall at work.
In our research, consisting of survey data from 913 women leaders as well as social media posts, numerous women without children reported experiencing significant bias and discrimination. As our research shows, the maternal wall hinders all women’s careers, whether they plan to have children or not. Here are a few of the specific biases we discovered.
“Maybe baby” bias
In our research, we heard from many women who were not hired or promoted due to an assumption that they would become mothers. One higher education leader learned she wasn’t offered a promotion because she “planned on having a family and would need maternity leave.” Interviewers asked an animator about future motherhood plans: “When I said, ‘I don’t want children’… I could tell I was considered suspicious and probably a liar.
The places that asked did not hire me.” A chief executive officer noted the futility of actions like filing a complaint or suing: “It’s illegal but there’s no way to hold these hiring managers accountable unless we have a ton of money because the system is rigged. We have to prove that one question was why they didn’t hire us.” Several women noted that they were advised to remove wedding and engagement rings for interviews to avoid the perception of needing maternity leave.
Researchers Jamie Gloor, Tyler Okimoto, and Eden King call this practice “maybe baby” discrimination. Managers’ assumptions that an applicant will have a baby “increases their perceptions of risk associated with employing childfree, childbearing-aged women — but not men.” Even just changing one’s last name at marriage is enough to trigger “maybe baby” bias against women. And unfortunately, women themselves can hold this bias, as one participant did: “I’ve had several people I manage get pregnant and have children, and it…makes things tough as far as being able to count on them.”
“Do more” bias
Many women with no children found that they were expected to work longer and harder than their peers with children. A project manager stated, “What I have experienced is that I would go the extra mile, or that I had capacity to do more work or longer hours because I didn’t have children. Which I greatly resented. All of us have a life, with or without children.”
Another non-mother expressed how her choice of vacation time was constrained: “It was assumed that I would always cover school [breaks] for mothers and not take any holiday at those times. There was never any taking it in turns or husbands bearing the burden.” And a professor noted, “It is automatically assumed we have nothing to do.” If women aren’t literally bearing the next generation’s children, people may believe they have nothing else to do besides their paid career.
“Pay less” bias
Many women expressed dismay that they were seen as less deserving financially because they were “not working to support a family.” One professional who was single with no kids learned that a male coworker hired at the same level was paid more because “he was married with a family to feed.”
After another male colleague wrote to the manager and got a raise because he was a newlywed and expecting a child, this woman asked for a pay increase. According to our research participant, the manager replied that “business was bad, and he would review in six months’ time.” Another woman’s boss explicitly stated, “I like to hire women because I can pay them less because they don’t have to support their family.” There is still a pervasive view that women’s earnings — no matter their family status — are optional or “just for fun.”
“Never quite right” bias
Not having or wanting children is another way women are “never quite right.” As one professional reported:
I was told by a previous employer that nonparents aren’t cut out to be managers. Previous employers have also assumed I was either over- or under-invested in my career based on parental status — either forgoing children for a career (bad) or pursuing a career until I start a family (also bad).
Black women are often subject to these opposing expectations. “Either we have children too early, or we choose to have them too late if we put our careers first,” as anthropologist Khiara Bridges observed in an article in Harpar’s Bazaar.
Whether women have children or don’t have children, want children or don’t want children, they are perceived as less worthy of positions, promotions, and earnings than their male colleagues. As noted in legal scholar Joan C. William’s book Unbending Gender, “The impact of motherhood shadows every woman, narrowing her options. Even those without children may be harmed.” Yet if we keep marginalizing women at work — no matter their parental status — we all lose out. Innovation requires a diversity of ideas and perspectives.
As a World Economic Forum study found, companies with above-average diversity reported higher innovation revenue than those with below-average diversity. When half the population is kept from contributing or advancing at work, societal progress is slowed.
As we have found in our research and work with organizations, there are business practices that will ensure all women are valued and provided with equal opportunities at work.
Flexibility — not judgment
Flexibility in where and when work gets done is crucial for parents and nonparents alike. But a 2022 survey found that 86% of respondents believed that parents take precedence when it comes to flexible work; 81% believed that child-related reasons for being unavailable were more valid than reasons of employees without children. Parenthood is a demanding role but only one type of caretaking. Many nonparents also have caregiving responsibilities for family, friends, neighbors, or even pets. And everyone has a life outside of their job. Leaders should offer flexible work without judgment, and model it by being transparent when taking time off for reasons unrelated to children. Flexible work should be offered to all employees without requiring a justification as to why they use it.
“Flip it to test it”
In hiring and promotional discussions, use “flip it to test it” to be sure that inappropriate or off-topic assumptions are not being put on women. For example, if you question whether a woman applicant or promotional candidate will get pregnant and need maternity leave, flip it as if the candidate were a man. If you would not say, “Juan may become a father and need to be off for paternity leave,” then don’t say it about a woman.
Equitable work
Nonparents are often expected to “pick up the slack” for colleagues who are out for parental leave or caregiving. Instead of dumping extra work on these coworkers, consider how you can build coverage into jobs. Ensure you have enough employees to cover short-term absences. You can also use temporary workers to cover for people who are out, offer current workers overtime or a stipend to take on the additional work, or hire an interim backfill when a person is on a prolonged leave. If you must have an existing employee step in, compensate them appropriately if they are taking on higher-level work and release them from other tasks.
Also, give employees options for extended time away unrelated to family issues, such as sabbaticals. While parental leave is no vacation, ensuring that nonparents can also have an extended leave will help with equity.
Equal pay
Pay should be set based on a person’s position and not their family status. Use policies to guide how pay and raises are determined. Use standardized job classifications to set salaries based on the needed skills and competencies. Ensure opportunities for bonuses and promotions are available to everyone. Conduct a pay audit for jobs at all levels which analyzes salaries based on demographic data including gender, race, and parental status. This will help to ensure that men are not making more due to family considerations. If you discover inequities, correct them immediately. Rerun the pay analysis annually to identify and fix any inequities that have crept in.
Encourage men to demonstrate caregiving
We know that paid parental leave is helpful to parents and especially mothers. By also requiring fathers to take the leave, organizations can dispel perceptions that only women will eventually need it. As we have shown, women face discrimination due to both motherhood and potential motherhood. Mandating that men use parental leave neutralizes stigmas associated with caregiving, thus reducing workplace bias against women. Men should also be encouraged to take family sick leave and be vocal about their needs to leave early for caregiving. Having men demonstrate their role in caregiving will help combat notions that hiring or promoting women presents a risk to the company.
Eliminating the maternal wall against nonmothers and mothers alike is entirely possible. Make the effort and you will reap the results of an engaged workforce.
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