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Verified by Psychology Today

[Tyler G. Okimoto Ph.D.+]

Tyler G Okimoto Ph.D.

Moving Past Conflict

Bias

Women Without Children Still Face a "Motherhood Penalty"

Simply being a woman of childbearing age can trigger discrimination.

Updated April 29, 2024 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

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Key points

• Mothers often face employment disadvantages relative to women without children.
• Women without children may still face motherhood bias if they are expected to have children in the future.
• Organizations will benefit from making bias-free decisions.

There are very real challenges that working parents must navigate. Even after parental leave is over, quality child care can be hard to find and expensive, work travel is difficult to coordinate, school pickups and drop-offs cut the workday short, and the list goes on. But even if you manage to solve all these practical challenges so that you can dedicate the time and focus that your job requires, your employer might still assume that you are less dedicated, potentially affecting career opportunities.

We also know from decades of research that women are particularly likely to face this type of bias?often called "the motherhood penalty