When “mom’s the boss”: Control over domestic decision making reduces women’s interest in workplace power

Abstract

Although men are typically considered to have more power than women, women are more likely than men to be primary decision makers in the household domain. We argue that the portrayal of women’s traditional role as representing a form of power, albeit limited in scope, is widespread in popular culture, and that this power is perceived as desirable and providing a subjective sense of control (Study 1). Yet power over household decision making may also function to reduce women’s objections to a status quo in which they have less power overall, outside their traditional role. Two experiments (Studies 2 and 3) showed that power over household decisions (but not mere domestic tasks) reduced women’s interest in achieving power in the workplace. Men’s interest in workplace power, on the other hand, was unaffected by the degree to which they wielded power at home.

The Current States of Male Involvement on Family Planning and Factors Correlated with among Male Factory Workers in Bahir Dar City

“…This implies that women are getting their autonomy and developing equal right or decision-making power in all aspects of the household properties. This was supported by other evidences where women are more likely than men to be primary decision makers in the household domain (Melissa J et al, 2013).…”

Status, power, and intergroup relations: the personal is the societal

“…Power also differs by domain (e.g., workplace or domestic; 11). Still, hierarchy beliefs do generalize across contexts (12).…”

Men's roles and women's goals: Causes, consequences and complementarity

“…First, although sons' gender role beliefs were predicted by their fathers' tendency to self-stereotype, there was little evidence that boys develop a personal interest in a more family-oriented future from their fathers' domestic beliefs and behaviors. Instead, we observed that fathers' gender role beliefs, self-stereotypes, and domestic behaviors were particularly predictive of their daughters' occupational aspirations, despite fathers being of a different gender and mothers more often serving as the primary caregiver and having control over the domestic sphere (Williams & Chen, 2013). There are several possible explanations for these findings between fathers and their daughters.…”

“…This second shift (Hochschild, 1989;Hochschild & Machung, 2012) for working mothers is a widely documented phenomenon that can lead women to "opt out" of their careers temporarily or permanently once they become mothers (Stone, 2007). For instance, we know that once women have children, they are more likely than men to leave the workforce, reduce their work hours and, as a result, suffer a decrease in income and career advancement (Stone, 2007;Williams & Chen, 2013). On the one hand, many of these women might truly prefer to prioritize family over career.…”

“…For example, if children model themselves after their same-sex parent, we might observe a higher correspondence of beliefs between mothers and daughters and between fathers and sons (Bandura, Ross & Ross, 1961;Fulcher & Coyle, 2011). Alternatively, if women are the power brokers at home (Williams & Chen, 2013), then women's beliefs and behaviors might best predict both sons' and daughters' beliefs when it comes to domestic stereotypes. A third prediction, however, is that men's higher status in society (e.g., Conway, Pizzamiglio & Mount, 1996;Ridgeway, 1991) gives fathers a gatekeeping role whereby their beliefs, implicit associations, and behaviors could be uniquely powerful in shaping their daughters' aspirations.…”