FGCU study shows how remote jobs affect view of moms at work

Studies show that motherhood comes with a negative perception in the workplace and can affect pay raises and promotions. But what about if you work from home? A Florida Gulf Coast University professor did her own study.

On any given day, Dr. Meagan Baskin, associate professor of management at FGCU, can be found on her computer in the kitchen, putting together classes. Her two boys are often right behind her.

But in 2020, she was living in Oklahoma working for another university.

“I was teaching a class in organizational behavior, talking about how the pandemic has impacted work-life balance,” Baskin said. “And I’m teaching this class to graduate students. And in the middle of the class, my son shot me in the head with a Nerf gun. And I was just like, ‘Mic drop—class is over.’ And this was on a Zoom video.”

Since 2020, many parents have experienced similar moments. And working remotely isn’t going anywhere: A FlexJobs Career Plus survey taken in the summer of 2022 found 97% of workers want some form of remote work.

“I started talking to other mothers that were other professors at other universities and we noticed some of the challenges others were facing across the world that might have been disproportionate to their father counterparts,” Baskin said.

Baskin and those other professors decided to conduct a study with a simple question: Does being a parent change your bosses’ perception of how hard you work?

To fully understand, you first must know the motherhood penalty/fatherhood premium concept. Studies show that women who are open about having children in their workplace are perceived to not be as good at their job. But fathers, on the other hand, benefit from talking about fatherhood.

“We thought that the motherhood penalty would skyrocket as we increase the presence of kids,” Baskin said.

Using face-manipulating software, the professors used two images, a man and a woman. The first shot showed just the fake employees. The next shot showed toys, but no kids in the background, so it was unclear if the person had children. The final shot showed a child and toys behind the employee.

They gave supervisors a fake conversation with the worker. The fake employee was top-performing, and their smile, race and clothes were the same to keep the setting controlled. Then the supervisors were asked to rate the employee’s performance and commitment.

“Where there were just kids’ toys in the background, we saw the motherhood penalty happening, but when we actually saw there were kids at home, it went down, and when we put a kid in the background it went down again,” Baskin said. “So, actually better to have kids present; it actually helped their performance evaluations.”

The moral of the study? Don’t hide your kids during remote work.

Baskin theorizes that if you’re not open, your boss comes up with a reason you’re not working or getting a job done, and that could be much worse.

As for fathers in the remote space, the premium still existed across the board.