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When professionals become mothers, warmth doesn’t cut the ice (2004)
| Venue: | Journal of Social Issues |
| Citations: | 59 - 5 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Cuddy04whenprofessionals,
author = {Amy J. C. Cuddy and Susan T. Fiske and Peter Glick},
title = {When professionals become mothers, warmth doesn’t cut the ice},
journal = {Journal of Social Issues},
year = {2004},
pages = {701708}
}
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Abstract
Working moms risk being reduced to one of two subtypes: homemakers—viewed as warm but incompetent, or female professionals—characterized as competent but cold. The current study ( N = 122 college students) presents four important findings. First, when working women become mothers, they trade perceived com-petence for perceived warmth. Second, working men don’t make this trade; when they become fathers, they gain perceived warmth and maintain perceived com-petence. Third, people report less interest in hiring, promoting, and educating working moms relative to working dads and childless employees. Finally, compe-tence ratings predict interest in hiring, promoting, and educating workers. Thus, working moms ’ gain in perceived warmth does not help them, but their loss in perceived competence does hurt them. One of us is drafting this article between loads of laundry, another during a toddler’s naps, and another between homework consults. All three of us take our careers seriously and take our child-rearing seriously. And yet our situations differ, at least as perceived from outside. The working dad is lauded for being a great father, so involved with his child, but no one questions his commitment to his profession. The working moms among us haven’t heard any praise lately for their parenting skills, but have been asked if they can really manage the profession at the same time as raising their respective children (Deutsch & Saxon, 1998a). Women operate under pressure from ambient stereotypes saying that mothers can’t be serious professionals, otherwise known as the mommy track (Schwartz, 1989). ∗Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Amy Cuddy, Psychology Depart-
Keyphrases
perceived warmth college student compe-tence rating psychology depart female professional important finding childless employee great father working mom perceived competence current study mommy track ambient stereotype woman become mother deutsch saxon serious professional homework consults mom gain mom risk amy cuddy parenting skill respective child toddler nap
