Challenges for Working Parents PDF

What are challenges for working parents? 1. Obstacles for women: Work-family guilt & Flexibility stigma Men have a gender too!: Weakness Penalty and Precarious Manhood 1. Mothers who reported high work-family guiltreported lower happiness thought more about reducing their work hours...

What are challenges for working parents? 1. Obstacles for women: Work-family guilt & Flexibility stigma Men have a gender too!: Weakness Penalty and Precarious Manhood 1. Mothers who reported high work-family guiltreported lower happiness thought more about reducing their work hours reduced the time they planned for themselves planned to reserve more time and energy for their children in the future Parental guilt is predicted by implicit gender stereotypes and explicit gender role beliefs 1. Results cross-national/cross-organizational study (N = 2601 working parents in 113 organizations within 9 countries):Fathersandmothers: more workhours -\> more guilt 2. Individual (explicit) traditional gender role beliefs:Women: Stronger explicit gender role beliefs -\> lower work hours 3. Fathers: more traditional gender role beliefs, less guilt when working a lot 4. 5. Organizational norms: lower guilt in father friendly organisations!in organizations with low support for the parent role of working fathers, mothers who work a lot report a lot of guilt, much more than fathers 6. in father friendly organizations mothers who work a lot feel less guilty, and report similar levels of guilt to fathers 7. 8. No country level effects 9. Use policies available (maternity leave, parental leave, flexible work options) But: 1. Flexibility stigma (Williams et al., 2013)Perception that employees who use flexible work arrangements (parttime work, working from home) *for family and care purposes* are less productive and less committed Flexible workers deviate from the 'ideal worker norm' ( = workers should be completely devoted to their jobs without interference from outside responsibilities) Mothers who take leave are seen as less committed and less competent employees who are less worthy of rewards (Morgenroth & Heilman, 2017) Motherhood penalty: mothers earn less than women without children and men (with and without children) Double standard: Mothers who forego leave are seen as bad parent, fathers are not 'Maybe baby' expectations: employees offer more preciarious positions to women who indicate interest in having children later (Gloor et al., 2021) 1. Women have increasingly taken on more agentic roles outside home Self-description of women has become more agentic Past 50 years, stereotype of women has become more agentic No comparable changes for men Biological/evolutionary perspectives cannot explain why why women's traits and roles have changed so quickly while men's traits and roles have remained relatively more stagnant. 1. **Societal benefits:** labour shortages in healthcare, education, service More men in communal roles broaden the diversity of perspectives in these roles Now that women no longer feel the need to put their own career ambitions second to men's, someone is needed to fill the gap in child care and domestic responsibilities at home. Men\'s involvement in domestic tasks and in education weakens stereotype-constrained roles in future generations **Benefits to men:**men (and women) benefit from a more communal orientation in life (life satisfaction, belongingness, social connections) Men who are involved in bringing up their children report higher well-being, health, marital satisfaction psychological benefits of prioritizing motives for social connection and communion over motives for esteem or status **Benefits to children:**High-quality father involvement benefits children's social and cognitive development **Benefits to women:**Reduces the second shift and adjustment of future career goals Female partners enjoy greater freedom to pursue more agentic career goals. Biological and cultural factors have ensured that men and women segregate into different social roles Agentic and communal roles are readily assigned different social status or prestige (e.g., lower salaries in female-dominated sectors). Societies function more efficiently when people accept the status quo (e.g., gender hierarchy) and see it as legitimate 1. Status quo is protected by status legitimization:Gender essentialism (e.g. "men lack biological aptitude to care for children") Benevolent sexism ("women are wonderful and need to be protected") Stereotypes will only change when individual men and women take on counter-stereotypical roles Lower status groups mimic traits of high status group (women enter male-dominated sectors) High status groups are unlikely to value traits and roles of low status group Men's interest in communal roles restricted by: 1. Gender stereotypes aboutmen'slackof empathic, emotional, communicationskills Even more explicit, readilyendorsedandstablethanstereotypes aboutwomen Resultsin self-stereotypingandreducedinterest in communaltraitsandroles Lackof rolemodels(e.g., real life andmedia) Financial factors (lowerwagesin femininesectors) Gender norms (descriptive and prescriptive) are maintained through 'social regulation' (social rewards and punishments) Anticipating social punishments (negative evaluation, exclusion) **Weaknesspenalty:** *backlash*whenmen show 'feminine' behaviorthatchallengesgender hierarchy: theyare seenas likeablebut weakandundeservingof respect ( Gender rolecongruent: ambitious/successfulman withlesssuccesfulwoman(whoprioritizesfamily) Gender role-reversed: womanhas highersocietalstatus thanmale partner (basedon salary, education, prestige) 1. Evaluations of role-reversed relationships by others (experiments):Female partner is perceived to 'wear the pants' and is perceived as unlikeable (dominance penalty) Male partner is perceived to be a 'wimp' and receives less respect (weakness penalty) People expect role-reversed relationships to be less satisfying than traditional relationships Precarious manhood (Vandello & Bosson, 2013): 1. being a 'real man' is hard to earn, easy to lose, and must be proven repeatedly in contrast, womanhood is perceived as less precarious, a more inevitable state associated with biological changes Proving masulinity by avoiding stereotypically feminine characteristics/behaviors etc Masculinity threat: men who are threatened in masculinity can cope by asserting masculinity (through aggression, support for ideologies that subordinate women) 1. Not only for women! Make organisations father friendly!Women report lower work-family guilt in organizations that treat fathers as active caregivers (e.g. supporting paternal leave) (Aarntzen et al., 2021) This communicate the norm to fathers ànd mothers that they are seen as equal partner in raising children (more gender equal?) Consider whether policies don't lead to more stereotyping (longer paid leave for birth mothers compared to partners) But sometimes policies should not be gender blind because experiences of men and women are not the same (e.g., tenure clock stoppage policy for parents; Lecture 3) 2.Get rid of flexibility stigma!Employees who perceive a stigma on flexible working are less likely to use flexible work options Perceived flexibility bias reduces job satisfaction and engagement and increases turnover intentions and work-life spillover *for all types of employees* (even ideal workers) (Trimble O'Connor & Cech, 2018) 9.