gender stereotypes
Working mothers feel guilty – fathers don’t
Gender stereotypes make working mothers feel guilty more often.
© ohishiftl
Gender stereotypes make working mothers feel bad for “neglecting” their families. A problem that many fathers do not have.
We live in a time where women can be anything: judge, housewife, CEO, chancellor… or multiple roles at the same time. But even in 2022, society will not be free of gender stereotypes, i.e. certain ideas about which tasks women can and which men should – and above all, should.
One current study has now found that working mothers tended to feel more guilty than fathers – especially when the men believed more strongly in the gender stereotype that women do all or at least most of the care work.
A lot has happened and then very little
The idea of how the sexes should behave is deeply ingrained in our consciousness: even though women are well represented in the labor market today and a lot has happened in relation to care work in recent decades, In the 21st century, women are still largely responsible for childcare and household chores, like severalstudies demonstrate. It is also the father who – as in the 1990s – often earns the most money and works most of the time away from home.
According to the social role theory society has different expectations of men and women: Attributes such as warm-heartedness and caring tend to be attributed to women, aggressiveness and strength to men. While such clichés no longer have a place in many households, the current study published in the “British Journal of Social Psychology” shows that that the “internalized gender stereotypes” are still present in many minds – and that it is precisely the mothers who suffer as a result.
Gender stereotypes are at the expense of women
In the study, the participating men and women were faced with a fictitious scenario: their child is sick at home, they still have to go to work, while their partner is allowed to stay at home. Both had to state how guilty they would feel in this situation, and they were also asked to what extent they agreed with traditional gender stereotypes that see women in the family and men at work.
The result: On average, mothers felt more guilty than fathers. The male participants felt less guilty the more they agreed with traditional gender stereotypes. A second study of women found that the days they worked longer, the more guilty they felt. And here, logically, the result was the other way around in terms of agreeing with traditional gender stereotypes: The more the women interviewed agreed, the more guilty they felt about working.
“Our research shows that these gender stereotypes not only shape how others judge us, but also how parents themselves feel about their family and career choices,” explains Lianne Aarntzen, the study’s lead author. “In order to achieve gender equality in work and family roles, an important first step is to remove the gender aspect of guilt when parents’ work interferes with their parenting responsibilities.”
Sources used: dailymail.uk.com, bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com, semanticscholar.org, epws.org, psycnet.apa.org