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Work Values, Gender, and Expectations About Work Commitment and Pay: Laying the Groundwork for the “Motherhood Penalty”?

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Abstract

The gender pay gap most seriously affects women with children—a situation labeled the motherhood penalty. One common explanation is that mothers value family more than employment, leading to reduced work commitment and hence to lower pay. Using a questionnaire, we examined the relationship between endorsement of two work-related values (family and power), anticipated work commitment, and expected peak pay among 229 undergraduates at a southeastern U.S. university. Men expected higher peak salaries, valued power more and family less than women. For both genders, valuing power predicted higher expected peak salary and valuing family predicted lower anticipated work commitment. For women, reduced work commitment, in turn, predicted lower anticipated peak pay. For men, valuing family predicted higher peak pay expectations.

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Acknowledgement

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Charlotte, NC, 2008. The authors acknowledge, with thanks, the assistance of Stephanie Hoban and Tzu Min Lee with data collection and of Wayne Andrew with data analysis.

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  1. Psychology Department, Radford University, Box 6946, Radford, VA, 24060, USA

    Hilary Lips & Katie Lawson

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  1. Hilary Lips
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  2. Katie Lawson
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Correspondence to Hilary Lips.

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Lips, H., Lawson, K. Work Values, Gender, and Expectations About Work Commitment and Pay: Laying the Groundwork for the “Motherhood Penalty”?. Sex Roles 61, 667–676 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9670-0

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