Work or family? Family as a cause of discrimination against women regarding access to powerful positions

• Autores: Beatriz Aranza Sánchez
• Directores de la Tesis: Berta Moreno Küstner (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad de Málaga ( España ) en 2012
• Idioma: español
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Benoit Darbeen (presid.), Alberto Rodríguez Morejón (secret.), Theresa K. Vescio (voc.), María Isabel Hombrados Mendieta (voc.), Carmen Gómez Berrocal (voc.)
• Materias:
  • Psicología
    • Estudio psicológico de temas sociales
      • Discriminación
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• Resumen

  • Individuals who seek balance in their between work and family can face a dilemma: workplace norms may emphasize single-minded devotion to work, leading to discrimination toward workers who express a desire for work-life balance. However, the worker¿s gender may moderate whether such discrimination takes place. The current research examined whether female, but not male, job candidates for a traditionally masculine job would experience hiring discrimination if they indicated that they were devoted to family as well as to work. Conversely, might working mothers who indicate a stronger devotion to work than to family be less likely to experience the ¿motherhood penalty¿ in hiring decisions? Male and female undergraduates role-played acting as the manager of a company. Participants received information about the company and an important position (General Manager of Engineering) the company sought to fill. Subsequently, participants received information about a finalist for the job, including a detailed résumé, as well as a ¿personal profile¿ in which the candidate described himself or herself. Information about the finalist was held constant (e.g., all candidates were extremely well qualified, as well as married, with children), except for a devotion to family as well as to work. Participants then rated the candidate on various scales, including: overall evaluation, hiring recommendation, and whether valued resources ought to be devoted to the candidate if hired. Each dependent variable was analyzed using a 2 (sex of participant) x 2 (sex of candidate) x 2 (personal orientation of candidate: devoted to work versus devoted to family as well as work). Results consistently revealed discrimination against the family-oriented female candidate and were less willing to devote resources to her if hired. More specifically, significant interactions occurred between the candidate¿s sex and the candidate¿s personal orientation (work versus family) for the hiring recommendation and resource allocation measures. Post hoc contrasts revealed that the female, family-oriented candidate was rated less favorably than all other candidates on the hiring and resource allocation measures. However, all other candidates were rated less favorably on these measures, indicating that working mothers were not discriminated against relative to working fathers when they stressed their single-minded devotion to work. In sum, whereas a man was allowed to express devotion to family as well as work and receive no penalty, a woman was not accorded the same latitude. Importantly, however, the motherhood penalty was eliminated for the work-devoted female candidate (who was given ratings similar male candidates). Implications of these results for gender inequality and reducing the motherhood penalty are discussed.