Quick Hit: The Anti-Mommy Bias

NY Times blog Economix has post by Nancy Folbre from yesterday on the discrimination that working caregivers experience – especially when they’re mothers:

During the 1920s and 1930s, many employers refused to hire married women, or fired them once they married. As my fellow Economix blogger Casey Mulligan points out, such “marriage bars” are not allowed today. But family responsibilities still weigh more heavily on women than on men, accounting for much of the pay gap between the sexes. Some policy analysts argue that mothers make a lifestyle choice, opting for easier, more flexible work over greater responsibility and higher pay. Others, like myself, argue that our economic system imposes unfair penalties on those who care for others.
But shouldn’t both sides in this debate protest when women (or men) are penalized simply because they are caregivers? Considerable evidence suggests that maternal responsibility intensifies gender stereotyping in harmful — and often illegal — ways.

I’m actually a pretty big fan of Folbre and glad to see her voice in the Times; I read her book The Invisible Heart in college – definitely recommend it.