Intersectional Inequalities in Work-Family Policy: Racialized Patterns of Parental Leave Interest

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 18: Policies and Organizations

Abstract

Work-family policy is becoming increasingly important for Americans: research shows that men and women want to share caregiving and earning responsibilities with a partner and want policies that help them attain that ideal. However, these desires are challenging to achieve given heterogenous parental leave policies and workplace norms that reward implicitly white male “ideal workers” who are always available and have few responsibilities outside of work. This is particularly salient for women of color, who tend to work in more precarious jobs, and who experience “double jeopardy” from being at the intersection of racial and gender discrimination. Thus, it is particularly important to develop an in-depth understanding of how men and women navigate parental leave within racialized categories. In this paper, I expand on findings by Sarah Thébaud and David Pedulla (2022), who analyzed the effect of financial cost and flexibility stigma experimental manipulations on a population-based survey cohort. Their findings provided a novel understanding of how policies could improve gender gaps in parental leave policy interest. However, Thébaud and Pedulla’s original analysis examined only differences by gender, not by racialized gender identity. Because workplace experiences are often structured by race and gender, it follows that there may be racialized heterogeneity in attitudes toward parental leave interest within gender. Preliminary findings support this hypothesis. Women of color have a statistically significant, decreased demonstrated interest in parental leave, in line with that of male respondents. Subsequent analyses will examine explanations for this racialized trend among women. Building on prior research, this paper shows the importance of theorizing racialization in studies of workplace inequality and suggests future areas of research in improving stratification within parental leave use.

Author

• Jacqueline Brown, University of California-Berkeley