Motherhood and Labor Market Outcomes

这项研究的重点是职场母亲在求职时是否会受到歧视，即使她们表现出极高的能力和对有偿工作的投入。这项研究建立在十年来的学术研究的基础上，这些研究表明，与其他类型的工人相比，母亲的工资更低，在劳动力市场上的表现也更差。这种惩罚在各国都适用，并且随着时间的推移保持稳定。在之前的一项实验研究中，研究人员发现，至少有一部分母亲受到的惩罚来自于地位歧视，这意味着评估者认为母亲的能力和责任感不如非母亲。在这个项目中，pi认为，即使母亲提供了高能力和对有偿工作的承诺的证据，她们也违反了关于母亲适当角色的广泛文化信仰。因此，研究人员期望评估者认为，当母亲提供能力和承诺的证据时，他们不那么讨人喜欢，在人际关系上更有敌意，因此，与其他类似的非母亲相比，他们给母亲的工资和其他水平的组织奖励更低。pi将通过一个实验室实验来验证这些假设，在这个实验中，参与者评估简历，这些简历系统地根据求职者的性别、父母身份、能力和承诺水平而变化，但在其他方面是相同的。参与者将根据一系列不同的标准对简历进行评分，这些标准旨在引导他们在评估过程中的思维过程。更广泛的影响：该研究有可能突出母亲面临持续劣势的重要机制，建议政策干预是否以及如何影响母亲惩罚，有助于培养本科生和研究生，并有助于标准化实验设置，以便进行分布和复制。

SES-0617086Shelley CorrellCornell UniversityThe research focuses on whether working mothers face discrimination when applying for jobs, even when they display extraordinarily high levels of competence and commitment to paid work. The research builds on a decade of scholarship indicating that mothers earn lower wages and generally fare worse in the labor market than other kinds of workers. This penalty holds cross-nationally and remains stable over time. In a prior experimental study, the investigators found that at least part of the penalty that mothers experience arises through status discrimination, which means that evaluators assume that mothers are less competent and committed than non-mothers. In this project, the PIs argue that even when mothers give evidence of high competence and commitment to paid work, they violate widely held cultural beliefs about the appropriate role of mothers. Consequently, the investigators expect evaluators to perceive mothers as less likeable and more interpersonally hostile when they give evidence of competence and commitment, and as a result offer them lower salaries and other levels of organizational rewards than otherwise similar non-mothers. The PIs will test these hypotheses using a laboratory experiment in which participants evaluate resumes that systematically vary on applicants' sex, parent status, and levels of competence and commitment, but are otherwise equivalent. Participants will rate the resumes on a diverse array of measures designed to elicit their thought processes during the evaluation. Broader Impacts: The research has the potential to highlight an important mechanism through which mothers face persistent disadvantages, suggest whether and how policy interventions may affect the motherhood penalty, contribute to the training of undergraduate and graduate students, and help to standardize the experimental setting for distribution and replication.