Women whose mothers worked outside the home
are more likely to have jobs themselves, are more likely to hold supervisory
responsibility at those jobs, and earn higher wages than women whose mothers
stayed home full time, according to research by Kathleen McGinn and colleagues.
Here’s some heartening news for working
mothers worried about the future of their children.
Women whose mothers worked outside the home
are more likely to have jobs themselves, are more likely to hold supervisory
responsibility at those jobs, and earn higher wages than women whose mothers
stayed home full time, according to a new study. Men raised by working mothers
are more likely to contribute to household chores and spend more time caring
for family members.
The findings are stark, and they hold true
across 24 countries.
“There are very few things, that we know
of, that have such a clear effect on gender inequality as being raised by a
working mother,” says Kathleen L. McGinn, the Cahners-Rabb Professor of
Business Administration at Harvard Business School, who conducted the study
with Mayra Ruiz Castro, a researcher at HBS, and Elizabeth Long Lingo, an
embedded practitioner at Mt. Holyoke College.
“There are very few things...that have such
a clear effect on gender inequality as being raised by a working mother.”
McGinn’s previous research, with Katherine
Milkman of Wharton Business School, found that female attorneys are more likely
to rise through the ranks of a firm (and less likely to leave) when they have
female partners as mentors and role models. McGinn, Castro, and Lingo wondered
how nontraditional role models influenced gender inequality at home—both in
terms of professional opportunities and household responsibilities.
“The link between home and the workplace is
becoming more and more critical as we have two-wage-earning families,” McGinn
says. “We tend to talk more about inequality in the workplace, and yet the
inequality in the home is really stuck.”
In developed countries, employed women in
two-parent households report that they spend an average of 17.7 hours per week
caring for family members, while employed men report devoting about 9,
according to the researchers. At the same time, women report spending an
average of 17.8 hours per week on housework, while men report an average of 8.8
hours.
About the Author: Carmen Nobel
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