Being a Parent or Having a Parent? The Perceived Employability of Men and Women Who Take Employment Leave

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3757487
AutoresJ A Kmec (0000-0002-5345-0553, Washington State University), Matt L Huffman (University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA), Andrew M Penner (0000-0002-9483-8933, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA)
Año2014
Volumen58
Número3
Páginas453-472
Fecha de publicación2014-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764213503338
OpenAlexW2331324554
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas24
Referencias citadas34

We explore one way family caregiving shapes inequality at work by analyzing the evaluations of men and women who took employment leave to care for a newborn or elderly parents or to recover from a personal injury. Roughly 500 undergraduate students evaluated the employability, qualifications, responsibility, and adherence to leave policies of a fictitious applicant for a professional job. Evaluators rated fathers and male elder caregivers as the most employable. This advantage was not explained by evaluators' thinking that fathers and male elder caregivers were qualified, responsible, and policy abiding, suggesting the operation of taste discrimination. Likewise, accounting for these factors widens the gap in perceived employability between male and female noncaregivers. We discuss what these findings reveal about the family-work link as well as their methodological and policy implications

Employability · Family Leave · Gender equality · Inequality · Parental leave · Pedagogy · Sociology · Work (physics) · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Psychology · Retirement, Disability, and Employment · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges