Notice to Employers: Mothers Are More Engaged At Work Than Fathers, Research Shows

by Erin Cech*

Popular beliefs about work-family issues characterize working moms as having a divided focus on home and work — they are therefore seen as less competent, less committed, and, as a result, less worthy of employment and promotion than men or childless women.

Sociologist Julie Kmec** sought to discover if working moms indeed show less “ideal” work attitudes and practices. Her research on US workers found quite the contrary: women with children are, on average, more engaged at work than fathers. Likewise, she found mothers have equal levels of work commitment, intensity, and motivation than other workers. Kmec’s study busts open cultural myths about mothers’ dedication to their work and refocuses the conversation on the need to revise workplace policies that push mothers into “mommy tracks.” She contends we need to ban differential treatment along the lines of childcare responsibilities.

Are mothers secondary earners and therefore, secondary employees?

The stereotypes about working mothers often assume that mothers are simply secondary earners and have breadwinning spouses. In fact, 10 million households are headed by single mothers, while only 6 million have a breadwinning husband and a non-working wife. In the current public discourse about gender workplace inequality and wage gaps, most sides share the assumption that, because of childcare responsibilities, working mothers’ work effort, commitment, and motivation suffer. Mothers, in other words, simply can’t live up to the modern expectations of the “ideal worker” — one who is deeply committed to their work and has few distractions or conflicting commitments from home.

These stereotypes have real-world consequences for working mothers. Burgeoning research in the social sciences from the last decade has found that mothers — even those who work full-time — face significant penalties in the workforce. Research by sociologist Shelley Correll and others has shown that, compared to equally-qualified men and women without children, mothers are less likely to be interviewed, hired or promoted and they are evaluated less positively and paid less. While many people recognize these inequalities, the common response is that mothers deserve these rewards less than other workers because their family responsibilities render them less dedicated and less engaged with their work.

Pro-work behavior and attitudes

Kmec’s research is the first study to actually investigate the pro-work behaviors of mothers, compared to fathers and non-parents of both genders. She conducted a study of more than 2,000 full-time workers using the latest National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, a nationally-representative sample of all US workers. Her analysis takes many relevant factors into account that shape pro-work behaviors: workers’ occupation, education level, number of hours worked per week, number of children, and type of organization.

Photograph: Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant, the Manhattan Project, circa 1943 - 45, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Gladys Owens, the woman seated at right closest to the camera, was unaware of the purpose and consequence of her work until seeing the photo of herself while taking a public tour of the facility nearly 60 years later. Photographer Ed Westcott / US Army / Manhattan Engineering District. Wikimedia Commons

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