Danny Jerez
9/22/2010
Women Leading in Business

Analysis of the Maternal Wall Stereotype Bias

The Maternal Wall is the bias women face in the workplace once they have children. Men also deal with this bias. Women are seen differently by their superiors once they have children. The role they had at work has now changed to the caring, motherly role. For example, let’s say a woman was performing at a fast pace and was doing the same or more work than her male colleagues, and a higher position opened up. If news spread that she was expecting a child, this would most likely affect her chances of getting that position. Why? Because her bosses would presume that she would not be able to take on the extra workload and will have to devote more time to her children than work. It is generally assumed that women will ask for that time off and work will take a back seat. Therefore, hurting their chances in climbing the corporate ladder.
Men are also victims. Even though, paternity leave is for men and women; both sexes are viewed differently when they take them. Women take paternity leave because they have to care for the child and time to recover and that’s understandable. However, when a man takes paternity leave, he is seen as someone who is looking to get out of work. He doesn’t appear dedicated to the job. This is because the male is seen as having more of dominant persona than a female. It goes back many, many years. Back to a time when the man was the breadwinner and the woman the housewife. Although, things have drastically changed, men are still viewed as the strong ones, the ones who always go to work because they are usually the head of the household. This stereotype is why most women hold off on starting a family. They want to reach their career goals and a baby could prohibit them from obtaining it. Oftentimes, working mothers are not considered for higher, more demanding positions. Maybe they have the abilities, the experience, a good consistent performance timeline, but if they go up against a person with no kids, statistics show that they’ll most likely lose. This is because a woman with no kids is seen as a free woman. A person with no ties or outside interruptions who can really focus on the job. While a mother is viewed as not having a lot of free time on her hands. The mother has more responsibility and priorities on her plate. This maternal wall can also cause tension among workers. Women with no kids can feel some animosity toward working mothers. One reason could be because their jealous of not having children. Another could be they feel it will give all women a bad image. Women already have it hard competing against men. Women in general often compare themselves to other women. Younger women can be perceived as not having it as hard as older women did. Also, perhaps these perks that most companies offer may influence women to have more kids. Thoughts like this can hurt relationships between mothers and non-mothers in the workplace. All in all what the maternal wall talks about is how women on the verge of or already have kids find it difficult to advance in their careers. They take on the mother role not only at home but at work also. Sometimes their tasks are changed to duties that don’t exploit their true abilities. For example, my sister worked as a project manager. It was her responsibility to led a team of six and present new products to the head of product development. When she was pregnant, she decided to take paternity leave. When she came back, she still had the same title but her workload had changed. She was given a partner to work on upcoming products. Her bosses told her to take it easy and concentrate more on fulfilling the needs of the workers on her team. So she ended up serving more as a counselor for her teammates while her partner organized the entire presentation. As you see, her role changed from a dominant position to a motherly one.
Another issue that the maternal wall covers is mothers are often overlooked when a position becomes available. There’s an assumption that mothers have less time for work, have trouble with punctuality, and can’t always be depended on in the workplace. Studies show these assumptions lead to mother’s making less money in their lifetime than a woman with no kids would make.
Mothers also lose that aggressiveness at work. They are not thought to have such strong personalities, only at home; so their expected to act a certain way. This way being a kind, caring, tender, gentle being. One final thing the maternal bias touches on is the way other women view working mothers. Since today there are various programs that help mothers, it may rub non-mothers the wrong way. It could be petty jealousy, but it could also be that women with no kids feel mothers don’t work as hard as they do. These women may feel that mothers are coasting along and others are carrying the load.
In conclusion, as stated earlier women are not the only ones who deal with bias. The maternal wall affects men too. This bias causes big problems in the careers of individuals. Not only from a personal perspective but a financial one as well. Individuals lose out on obtaining higher jobs with better pay, are looked at or treated in different ways from co-workers and bosses, and are held to perform at higher standards.