The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

468 Chapter 12

children. Among men, those who were

younger were more likely to have made

trade-offs than those who were older. Inter-

estingly, whether or not men made trade-offs

was unrelated to their incomes, but women

who had made trade-offs had lower incomes.

See Sidebar 12.3 for a discussion of family-

supportive work environments.

Another reason that the pay disparity

increases when women and men become par-

ents is that life priorities shift—especially for

women. One longitudinal study followed top

math and science graduate students between

the ages of 25 and 35 (Ferriman, Lubinski, &

Benbow, 2009). Although both women and

men said that job flexibility and limited work

hours were a priority at age 25, these issues be-

came more important over the next 10 years

to women than men—especially among those

who became parents. There is an economic

cost to job flexibility and limited work hours.

The fact that women value aspects of

work that have implications for family roles

children, they may experience thematernal

wall, which means that employers view them

as less desirable employees and provide them

with fewer resources and opportunities (Wil-

liams, 1999). A 10-year follow-up study of col-

lege graduates in 2003 showed that the pay gap

between men and women was much larger for

those with children than those without chil-

dren (see Figure 12.14; Dey & Hill, 2007).

Some of the effects of parental status on

women’s salaries are tangible, in that women

lose experience and time from paid work

when they have children. A study of cur-

rently employed adults examined the extent

to which women and men made concessions

in their employment to address child care

responsibilities (Carr, 2002). Of nearly 2,500

surveyed, more women (53%) than men

(14%) reported they had made concessions,

such as taking time off from employment to

care for children, reducing work hours to care

for children, or switching to less demand-

ing or more flexible jobs to accommodate

300

All With Children Without Children

0

600

1,200

900

1,500

$1,800

69% 63% 77%

Female

Male

xx% Pay Gap

FIGURE 12.14 The difference between men’s and women’s pay is larger for parents

than nonparents.

Source: Dey and Hill (2007).

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