Leistungsfähige berufstätige Mütter sehen sich aufgrund von Erziehungsfehlern härteren moralischen Urteilen gegenüber. Väter mit identischem beruflichen Erfolg erfahren diese moralische Verurteilung nicht, was eine tief verwurzelte Voreingenommenheit offenbart, die Frauen dazu zwingt, sich selbst zu regulieren, um ihren Ruf als Mutter zu schützen.
High-achieving working mothers face harsher moral judgments for parenting mistakes
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-Working mothers who pursue workplace advancement often face a hidden social penalty, as they are judged far more harshly on their parenting abilities than less ambitious women. Fathers with identical professional success do not experience this moral condemnation, revealing a deep-seated bias that forces women to self-regulate to protect their maternal reputations. The findings were [published](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03616843261422417) in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly.
Psychological research contains a wealth of data on how women face penalties in the professional sphere. One popular framework for understanding this bias is role congruity theory. This theory suggests that people face social friction when they act in ways that violate their gender stereotypes. For instance, people expect women to be warm and communal, so they react negatively when a female executive acts in a tough or assertive manner.
Another framework is the status incongruity hypothesis, which goes beyond simple personality traits to look at social power. Society traditionally assigns women a lower social status compared to men. When a woman engages in dominant behaviors, she signals that she holds a higher status in the social hierarchy. This challenges the traditional gender system and triggers an unconscious defensive reaction from observers known as backlash.
Historically, researchers have focused on how this backlash hurts women in the office, such as being passed over for promotions. Overlooked is how this penalty might spill over into a woman’s personal life. Motherhood is a highly moralized institution governed by strict societal rules. These rules dictate that women should naturally inhabit the role of primary caregiver and entirely subordinate their personal goals to those of their family.
They should self-regulate to ensure their children have good lives.
Same goes for fathers.
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Men lean on this type of gendered moral judgement at LOT, not just in the workplace.
Example: Men won’t clean up after themselves once they are married, even if they did it before that, not because they aren’t capable, but because they know that their spouses will be the one that gets judged as being a slob, not them.
The abstract seems to imply this was an entirely Chinese study. It also doesn’t say what the objective evidence of the various judgments was.
And this is part of the reason why I don’t want kids. No matter how hard I try in life, even if I consistently run circles around then men around me, I will still be considered sub-par based on my gender. Misogyny completely undermines womens lives at every turn. As a woman one wonders what’s the point? How does engaging in the model life script benefit me? It doesn’t. It hurts me if anything. The best move I can make as a woman is to not play at all. And that’s precisely why many women in my age group are opting out of having children. That and the outrageous cost of living.
If the study is exclusively on Chinese mothers, then wouldn’t cultural variables be just as significant as gender variables
I’ve seen similar studies about housekeeping. People tend to judge women more harshly, expecting them to be primarily responsible for keeping the home clean, even when household responsibilities are shared.
How about we all give our kids a little more attention and stop acting like it’s a competition to see who’s more aggrieved.
But this is ignoring the full picture that men are often generalized to be overall bumbling fools who can’t do anything. It’s this cultural viewpoint that leads to men not even having expectations at all.
So it’s definitely not like the way this is being painted „Men have it easy, they don’t get judged“. No, men often get harshly judged to the point that they aren’t even considered worthy of having those same expectations put on them.
Also, I’ll keep saying this until I’m blue in the face, *THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT TOPIC FOR r/science*. This is a social studies/psychology topic, it’s a soft topic where opinions and perspectives are high up in the interpretation of results.
Life is easier and there are fewer demands when you’re replaceable/disposable/expendable.
Is there an implication that this is a bad thing?
Meanwhile, childfree people of both genders just sipping tea.
As a feminist, a question I often hear from people who disagree with my beliefs is clearly women are better suited to caretaking because more of them do it. And my response is “you can’t discount the social conditioning”.
This article strengthens my argument because it seems that there are social consequences for going outside social conditioning norms.
Despite what’s possible for everyone people still believes women take care of children the best or that they should while the dad is away
I’m childfree and if asked I sometimes tell people that I think being a dad would be fun but I’d hate to be a mom. This study is a great illustration why.
Want kind of studies are being done…
1. People judge rich and successful harshly.. is it even a surprise? Or a discovery.
2. While being ambitious doesn’t mean rich/successful always but many times people have been defeated by hardworking and smart people.
Acting some one is hardworking is difficult so people can be jealous towards ambitious people. Also ambition is at time mixed with greed and selfishness..
3. Just because extract ly same bias is not present doesn’t mean biases don’t exist.
Make a study, where father was not hardworking and not ambitious, and couldn’t buy medicine or sports kid for his kid..
Then we will see is society is not biased against men or biases differently.
Call it biases, norms, behaviour or anything else, men are expected to be earn high and are equally treated harshly.
I feel like the issue here is more on the male side. Father’s should feel the same pressure to do good by their children just as much.
I don’t think parents should not feel pressure to take good care of their children, and both parents should self regulate in order to do a better job at it.
That said, parenting mistakes are bound to happen and at the same time parents need the space to address their mistakes as they come and adjust without unfair judgment from society. It’s a tricky, difficult and nuanced process to raise a child.
I like how the sicentist way if „this must be a bias we must change“
Having kids is a lose,lose,lise d3al for women
That tracks. The self-incrimination in non-negligible as well.
And we find out in part what maternal instinct could be.
Louis CK: Hi this is my first PTA meeting.
Everyone: Welcome! Oh that’s great!
Pamela Adeline: hi it’s mine too.
Everyone: (silence and glares)
Not if you only hang with progressives. I’m only ever praised.