Study: What Moms Think: Career vs. Paycheck. (Working Mother Media, 2012)
Finding: Attitudes determine outcomes in this research on women and work, but experience matters too. Women who are career minded are more positive about their careers. Male managers who have experience with working moms are also more likely to promote them.
InPower Insight: Experience can overcome attitude, so be careful to believe all the stories apply to you – even the ones validated by research!
Summary:
This broad-ranging research into attitudes of women and men about working mothers turns up some interesting and almost contradictory findings. Highlights include:
- Women who self-identify as having a career (as opposed to just working for the money) are more satisfied with their work, their decision to work and their life outside of work.
- In general, working fathers have more positive attitudes about working mothers than men with no children. Men and women with no children have poorer perceptions of working mothers.
- The exception is male managers, whether they have children or not. Male managers have a higher regard for working mothers than any other group, including working mothers themselves in some cases.
- Flexible working opportunities work for women and men, but appear to have even better outcomes for men.
- Women and men both are more comfortable with the idea that the man in a relationship earns more than the woman.
- Women and men have different perceptions of whether the men in a relationship are pulling their weight at home.
Career Coaching Tip: If you feel that life as a working mother is harder, it is. Whether you have children or not, try to look more objectively at your attitudes about what working moms are capable of, and their challenges, and note that those who may have the most experience, and thus best insight, into their actual capabilities – male managers – think so highly of them they’re willing to give them responsibilities even other working mothers are. No matter what your situation, recognize that attitudes matter and that when you adjust yours you can have a significant impact on your own work satisfaction and your fairness towards others around you.
Keywords: male managers, working mother, attitudes, flexible work arrangements, flexibility
