Effects of Parental Status on Employment Outcomes by Age and Career Stage: A Web-based Experiment

• In Event: 447 - Section on Social Psychology Roundtable Session (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Family Dynamics and the Life Course

Abstract

Drawing on expectation states theory, literature on the glass ceiling, gender stereotypes, and life course research, this study examines the motherhood penalty within the employment system, particularly at promotion decisions. Prior work suggests that mothers suffer from negative evaluations and are more likely to be rejected at hiring stage. This study looks into later career stages as women with children become older and seek for higher managerial positions. I predict that mothers will get more disadvantaged but fathers more advantaged when expectations for life course and masculine leadership come into play. I will test my hypotheses using an experimental design conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online marketplace where a diverse population is considered. 200 participants will be asked to rate a random pair of two fictitious workers, and their decisions of promotion or hiring recommendations will be measured as the outcome. The results will reflect whether and how the parental status affects women and men differently and how motherhood as a status hampers social mobility, further disadvantaging life chances.

Author

• Hsiang-Yuan Ho, University of Maryland