Workplace Mistreatment of Middle Class Workers Based on Sex, Parenthood, and Caregiving

Research suggests that women, but not men suffer negative professional consequences if they have children. These unequal consequences can be attributed to stereotypes about women's and men's roles as caregivers and breadwinners for their families, respectively. Two field studies of workpla...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of social issues 2013-06, Vol.69 (2), p.341-366
Main Authors: Berdahl, Jennifer L., Moon, Sue H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Caregivers
Children
Employees
Families & family life
Fathers
Females
Gender
Harassment
Males
Middle Class
Middle classes
Mothers
Parenthood
Parents
Sex differences
Sex discrimination
Sex Stereotypes
Stereotypes
Work
Workers
Working conditions
Workplaces
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Research suggests that women, but not men suffer negative professional consequences if they have children. These unequal consequences can be attributed to stereotypes about women's and men's roles as caregivers and breadwinners for their families, respectively. Two field studies of workplace mistreatment among middle‐class employees examined whether fathers who violate these gender stereotypes by actively caregiving for their families suffer negative consequences at work. Study 1 (N = 232) examined not man enough harassment (being derogated as insufficiently masculine) and Study 2 (N = 451) examined general forms of mistreatment. Results showed that caregiving fathers experience more harassment and mistreatment than traditional fathers and than men without children. Women without children experience more harassment and mistreatment than mothers, and mothers who spend less time on caregiving experience more harassment and mistreatment than mothers who spend more time on caregiving. We discuss implications for theory and practice.
ISSN:0022-4537
1540-4560
DOI:10.1111/josi.12018