Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow Employees?
Michelle Negley
James Madison University

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

Abstract
This paper will explore the question, Does a working mother receive a lower
income than her fellow employees? Gendered pay gap has been a popular topic in the
recent decades, and it makes a few special appearances in the current presidential
debates. However, what some people do not realize is that the pay gap is not necessarily
between males and females, but also between working mothers and childless women.
While female workers do not receive payment equal to men, working mothers lag the
furthest behind in terms of income. I am fascinated by this topic because I am a woman
who is concerned for my professional future, especially if I have to balance work and
children. I believe this exploration of inequality should resonate with my audience
because many of my readers are young women who, in the future, may want to work in
the labor force, and also become mothers. The ideas discussed in this paper will be of
great importance to those particular readers as they plan their personal, and professional
future. In this paper, I will analyze sources that provide information about the economic
complications of being a working mother, and how her payment differs from those of her
fellow workers.

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?
Introduction
For many women, bearing and raising children is a joyous experience. However,
if those women choose to work for an average job in America, their average income
could suffer. Why should something so positive have negative implications on their
earnings? For as long as men and women have been working in the same professional
field (1950s), there has been a gendered pay gap. Even though policies were set in place
during the 1960s to reduce the gender pay gap, women continue to earn 78-82% of a
mans salary (Catalyst.org). The people who suffer the most from the pay gap are
working mothers who earn 60% of a fathers salary (Crosby F., Williams J., and Biernat
M. The maternal wall pg. 677). This is concerning because in 2005, over 68% of the
female workforce were mothers (Lips H., and Lawson K. Work values, gender, and
expectations about work commitment and pay: laying the groundwork for the
motherhood penalty? pg. 667).
This paper will investigate the pay gap between fulltime working mothers and
fulltime working, childless women. It will also investigate the family income gap
between working fathers and working mothers, establishing the concept of fatherhood
benefits and motherhood penalties. This issue holds relevance because the gendered
pay gap is already a concern for young women in the professional field. The
motherhood penalty could have damaging effects on these young womens income,
rendering them unable to be independent. The purpose of this paper is to bring attention
to some of the economic consequences of being a working mother through research and
evidence.

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

Summarization of Texts
In their article The Maternal Wall,Faye Crosby, Joan Williams, and Monica
Biernat focus on the social implications surrounding low payment for working mothers.
They open the article by discussing how in the 1960s congress passed two policies that
were supposed to be beneficial to women in the workplace. These laws were the Equal
Pay Act, and Title VII (which was supposed to prevent sexual harassment.) Stereotyping
and discrimination based on sex were both violations of Title VII. However, in the 21st
century, women are still holding traditionally female jobs, and face sexual discrimination
in the workplace. There has been very little change for working mothers. The wages of
male workers outweigh those of female workers, but mothers lag the farthest behind in
terms of compensation. Part of this is due to them having to go on maternity, or work
their schedule around their new family. Many conservatives argue that the mothers made
their own choice, knowing the economic consequences. Feminists argue that a
workplaces ideals around the perfect worker is discriminatory towards female workers,
especially mothers, because men do not have to take maternity leave. Crosby, Williams,
and Biernat end the article by stating that if gendered stereotyping continues in the
workplace, then this viscous discrimination will never end.
Gender pay equity in advanced countries: the role of parenthood and policies by
Joya Misra and Eiko Strader investigates gendered pay gap in advanced democracies.
The article specifically analyzes the relationship between parenthood and wage. Although
women have made great advances in the professional field of wealthy countries in Europe
and North America, women continue to fall behind men in terms of compensation. In the
21st century, the pay gap between the wages of childless male and female workers has

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

narrowed for many advanced democracies. However, mothers still earn significantly less
money than their seedless coworkers. They fall even further behind working fathers, who
receive what many articles refer to as a fatherhood bonus. Misra and Strader study
eleven countries with the best economies, and they found that on average, working
mothers earn less than childless women, whereas, working fathers earn more than
childless men. Scholars argue that it is because a majority of mothers are called to
sacrifice some of their work time to complete domestic tasks. Men do not normally
participate domestic duties and are allowed to spend more time at work. The article ends
with suggestions for policies that would narrow the wage gap between working mothers
and working fathers including childcare programs, and gender neutral leaves.
Hillary Lips and Katie Lawson analyze a social experiment in their article, Work
values, gender, and expectations about work commitment and pay: laying the
groundwork for the motherhood penalty? They open their article by stating that
although women have overcome great obstacles in the last decades to earn their place in
the current professional field, they still face the great hurdle that is sexual discrimination
and the gendered pay gap. Working mothers are lowest on the totem pole in terms of
compensation, with working fathers located near the top. Lips and Lawson conduct a
study to explore the correlation between work values and pay expectations. 229
university students completed a survey asking detailed questions related to work vales,
pay expectations, and work commitment expectations. Their results concluded that
working mothers expect a low salary from their employers, because their balance
between family and work values could result in low work commitment. Experienced
workers also expect sexual discrimination from their employer. The results showed that

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

each students work and family value rating affect their expectations of payment. This
could be due to the assumption that employers value a mans work commitment over a
womans. If a woman goes on maternity leave, the employer is willing to pay her less.
Whereas, he does not want to risk losing the commitment of his working father, so he
grants him a higher salary.
Similarities in the Texts
The texts mentioned above hold many similarities of claims. One idea that is
shared by all three sources is that working mothers receive substantially less money than
her fellow coworkers, whereas fathers receive higher compensation. Crosby, Williams,
and Biernat state in their article that working mothers earn up to 60% of a fathers
compensation (Maternal Wall, pg. 677).That is almost 10% less than a childless woman
ratio to a fathers compensation. Lips and Lawson mention in their essay that the
consequences for women having children (7-8% decrease in compensation per child) are
not replicated for men who become fathers. In fact 55% of men see an increase in their
salaries when they bear children. This is known as a fatherhood premium or
fatherhood bonus (Work values, gender pg. 667). Gender pay equity also
presents evidence by stating, While mothers earn significantly less than childless women
with same characteristics, fathers earn somewhat more than childless men with the same
characteristics (Misra J., and Strader E. pg. 28).
Another agreement that is shared amongst the three sources is that an underlying
cause of pay inequality could be sexual discrimination. The sources present this cause
with varying degrees of importance. The Maternal Wall believes that sexual
discrimination a strong factor of the gendered pay gap. Crosby, Williams, and Biernat

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

state, Workplace ideals, feminists say, are still defined around mens bodies, since men
need no time off for childbirth, and mens life patterns, as American women still do 70%
to 80% of the child rearing. (pg. 677) Lips and Lawson discuss sexual discrimination in
the form of workplace policies regarding pregnant women. Many work places rightfully
give women time off from work to give birth to their child. However many workplaces
force women to take long maternity leaves. 40% of US women were required to take
unpaid maternity leave (Workplace values, gender pg. 668). Mira and Strader
suggest that an employers predisposed assumption that a mother acts as the primary
caregiver to a child is a contributing factor to gendered pay inequality (Gender pay
equity pg. 28).
Differences in the Texts
Although the three texts hold similarities on the main ideas of this topic, they
present differences in the way that they present their claims. Gender Pay Equity and
Workplace values, gender centered their focus on the economic implications of the
gendered pay gap. They analyzed how workplace inequality affects a working mothers
future compensation. Charts and mathematics were heavily utilized to support their
claims. The maternal wall discusses the causes of gendered pay gap. This article
focuses on the social aspects of this inequality, and how it inspires debate between the
conservatives and feminists.
The sources also differ in the format of their claims. The Maternal Wall, and
Gender pay equity are written and presented as research papers. They both
accumulated a great sum of sources that support their claims, and wrote their papers
based off of the evidence that they have uncovered. Workplace values, gender is

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

formatted in the form a lab report. Lips and Lawson introduce what they are trying to
discover from their research, then they present a hypothesis, the analysis of their social
experiment, and then they give the experiment results. This makes their search for
evidence active and hands on because they are not relying primarily on outside sources
to support their claim. They go out, and actively conduct a social experiment in order to
find evidence.
Evaluation of Texts
Crosby, Williams, and Biernats The maternal wall is a strong source because it
presents credible background information. The strengths of this article were that it was
peer-reviewed, and published in the Journal of Social Issues, which is a distinguished
journal. This gives the article high credibility. The authors are also present ethos because
they are professors who are distinguished in their field of study. Their field attributes
strongly to the subject of this article. These factors give The maternal wall a strong
appeal of ethos, and therefore, make it a reliable source for this paper. This article also
holds a few weaknesses. For example, it was published in 2004, so some of the
information presented could be considered out dated. The sources that the authors utilize
to support their claims could also be considered outdated for the time of publication.
Social implications of gendered pay gap were the theme of the article. My research
question relies primarily on the economic implications rather than the social implications.
However, I was able to utilize this source to provide background information for my
topic.
Work values, gender by Lips and Lawson is used to provide evidence of the
economic disparity between a working mother and her fellow coworkers. This article,

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

like The maternal wall, was peer reviewed and published in Sex Roles which is an
academic journal written specifically about how social standards treat genders differently.
Lips and Lawson are both professors of psychology who conducted a social experiment
to support their claims in the article. This gives their essay a strong appeal to ethos. Lips
and Lawson also utilize sources that were written within five years of the articles
publication date. This means that the information presented in the article is relevant and
current to the topic. There are a few weaknesses in this text. One is that it was published
in 2009, which means that the information in this article could be considered outdated
and not reliable. In my paper, I am focusing on the effects of the gendered pay gap on the
income of working mothers. This paper focuses on the how gender, and work and family
values affect the expectations of someones payment. This is an article looking towards
the future. I require an article that has concrete results. This is a strong article to provide
reliable background information, or to speculate some of the causes of wage inequality.
However, it is not reliable for providing concrete evidence on the effect that being a
working mother has on compensation.
Gender pay equity by Mira, and Strader is a credible text which provided
ample evidence regarding the effects of the gendered pay gap for working mothers. It was
peer reviewed and published in the Journal of International Affairs, which is a
distinguished journal. With a publication year of 2013, the information is relatively
current and holds better accuracy. The article also utilizes visuals, and charts to support
their claim, and so that the reader has a better understanding of what the authors are
stating. The authors, however, hold little appeal to ethos. While the article gives credit to
Mira and Strader, it does not provide their alma mater, or evidence that they are reliable

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

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writers. They do hold credit in the fact that they are published in an academic journal.
The article also focuses on gender payment equity in advanced countries around the
world, my paper focuses primarily on the wage gap in America. As a result, there were
only a few sections within this article that provide relevant research for my topic. Overall,
this source is reliable, and provided me with evidence that showed the economic effects
of the gendered pay gap on working mothers.
Conclusion
I began this paper with a broad knowledge of the gendered pay gap in America,
and I was curious on how it affects women who bear children. Through this research, I
have developed a deeper understanding of this topic. The wage gap between men and
women is not just an unfair bias for men, but it can have damaging effects on the salaries
of working mothers. My stance is that congress should do everything in their power to
make sure that women get the paychecks that they deserve. Workplaces should also alter
their policies by providing sophisticated childcare services, or by providing genderneutral paternal leave. Employers should also provide women the same bonuses that they
provide men when they become parents.
One thing that I am curious about is the affects of the gendered pay gap on single
mothers. The maternal wall makes a small mention of the subject. Wage inequality
could have highly damaging effects on the family income if the mother is single, or if she
is the sole breadwinner of her family. I would find articles that discuss the economic
implications of the gendered pay gap on single mothers, and the effects it has on her
family income. Overall, this research paper has opened my mind to this plague that is
spreading through America, and many advanced countries in the world. If the government

Does a Working Mother Receive a Lower Income than Her Fellow

Employees?

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does not make effort to quench this flame, then it will be hard for women and mothers to
truly be independent.

References
Crosby, F. J., Williams, J. C., & Biernat, M. (2004). The maternal wall. Journal Of
Social Issues, 60(4), 675-682.
Lips, H., & Lawson, K. (2009). Work values, gender, and expectations about work
commitment and pay: laying the groundwork for the motherhood penalty?. Sex
Roles, 61(9/10), 667-676.
Misra, J., & Strader, E. (2013). Gender pay equity in advanced countries: the role of
parenthood and policies. Journal Of International Affairs, 67(1), 27.

Research Narrative: https://magic.piktochart.com/output/12269252-motherhood-penalty