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Mothers Who Breastfeed Viewed as Incompetent, Less Likely to be Hired
Does she look incompetent to you?
Three separate studies have confirmed that “mothers who breastfeed are widely viewed as less competent than otherwise identical females,” as published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Additionally, one of the studies found that “breastfeeding is a handicap for women hoping to be hired for a job.” I wasn’t entirely shocked by that last statement since an anti-mother bias still exists in the workplace – that is until I read that a woman set to give her child a bath was perceived more favorably than a woman about to breastfeed, implying that “it isn’t parenthood per se that makes (women) less desirable as an employee,” but breastfeeding specifically.
Psychologist Jessi L. Smith of Montana State University who led the study says that both men and women view breastfeeding mothers as less capable. “Importantly, we did not find evidence that gender of the participant influenced perceptions of the breastfeeding mother,” she says. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to an avid Babble reader that women are pitted against each other when it comes to breastfeeding and breastfeeding support. As you know, Michele Bachmann – who says she breastfed her children – recently slammed Michelle Obama’s support of tax write-offs for breast pumps. Even mothers who agree “breast is best” can’t come to a consensus about how it should be handled in the workplace.
The good news for breastfeeding mothers is that during an “impression formation study” that used Brooke Shields as a subject, students who were told she breastfed described her as “significantly more warm and friendly” than those who were told she bottle-fed, but thought of her as “significantly less competent in general, and less competent in math specifically.” I guess the old “breastfeeding is for hippies” paradigm is still firmly planted in the collective consciousness. (As is, evidently, the “hippies are bad at math” stereotype.)
The aforementioned study showing a woman about to bathe her child was not viewed negatively also indicated that a woman wearing a strapless bra was labeled as less competent, “suggesting that the bias faced by breastfeeding women is similar to the one experienced by a woman for whom the breast is sexually objectified,” Tom Jacobs of Miller-McCune writes. But here’s the kicker: study participants concluded that they would rather hire the woman in the strapless bra than the breastfeeding mother. In America, boobs are for sex, not supper.
The researchers determined – as lactivists have – that the only way for this bias to diminish is for more mothers to come out and breastfeed in public. ”More visible breastfeeding mothers should prompt people to wrestle with and debate the issues,” they say, adding, “With time, greater numbers of women who breastfeed translates to less prejudice.”
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19 Comments
GP commented on Mar 24 11 at 12:07 pmConclusion: People are idiots.
iris1973 commented on Mar 24 11 at 12:34 pmThere’s so much wrong here I don’t even know where to start. For one thing…hippies are bad at math? I’ve never heard that one. And it’s completely wrong – every hippie I know is wildly intelligent.
My thought is that people who assume breastfeeding mothers are incompetent have clearly never gone through it. it takes an amazing amount of fortitude, planning, energy, determination, and sheer will to breastfeed a child (and to continue doing so after going back to work is a special kind of Superpower). If anything, a mother who chooses to breastfeed should be seen as someone with ABLE competence. It’s not a picnic. It’s hard, and it takes up a LOT of time and energy.
Alix commented on Mar 24 11 at 1:03 pmAmen, Iris1973. You took the words right out my mouth.
Liza Wyles commented on Mar 24 11 at 1:15 pmI am a full-time working mom, breastfeeding my second baby, which means I pump twice a day and have to transport the pump and milk when I travel for business. I always compare myself to those people who take smoke breaks…nobody gives them any grief. Except when I’m on my “break,” I’m actually giving life, as opposed to taking it away. I don’t know if I agree with the perception that I am less competent, but I suppose that I can see how some co-workers may regard me as less available (for those 2 x 20 minute intervals when I’m milking it). But again, would they think the same of smoking co-workers who spend just as much time a day as I do pumping, outside polluting themselves and the world?
GP commented on Mar 24 11 at 1:52 pmWhen I worked in an office, people spent an AWFUL lot of time bullshitting, so the facts, I would guess, are that a mom spending time pumping is no worse than that. Meetings are a huge time waster and yet we have to sit through them. Middle and upper management who don’t know how to work computers are huge time wasters and not competent. Training interns/low level staff again and again with things they should be able to figure out with a a little noodling in any MS application is a time waster. People are just ignorant asses is all it is. All that said, if would be so much simpler if moms could just get that (partially) paid/subsidized year of mat leave so that this would be mostly a moot point.
FromNorway commented on Mar 24 11 at 2:30 pmThis is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard: Breatfeeding mothers are incompetent (=stupid)? In Norway you are seen as a incompetent mother if you don’t breastfeed you baby. Our governments guidelines for babycare are breastfeeding fully until the baby are 6months, then later as an addition to babyfood. This is because breastmilk are proven to help preventing overweight (something for the US?), astma and allergi. It’s also against the law to discriminate pregnant women and nursing mothers in the workplaces. The employer are actually required to facilitate for breastfeeding at the workplace.
heather commented on Mar 24 11 at 2:46 pmI breastfeed, but have no problems with someone who chooses formula. With that being said, I can’t help but think that people who use formula are lower income, less educated and they choose formula because they can get it for next to nothing with the help of programs. Whenever I’m out shopping, these are the people I see buying them (not clothed well, do not speak in an intelligent manner, are usually very young and have their mothers also with them) so in my head, I would tend to think the opposite when it comes to competence/job hiring. My mother-in-law once told me back when her kids were young (30-40 years ago), if you breastfed, it was a sign that you were poor and uneducated because it was “obvious” that you couldn’t afford to buy your baby formula. So most moms formula fed at that time. That was very surprising to me as I had though formula was a relatively new fad. Still, formula or breastfeeding shouldn’t have anything to do with a job and the thought that it would is idiotic. It’s like not hiring a guy because he’ll sit down to pee instead of standing up. Does it matter to anyone or is anyone’s business? Nope.
andrea commented on Mar 24 11 at 4:30 pmI think the study is saying the women are viewed as less competent workers, not less competent mothers. And this rings true. A breastfeeding mother is advertising her priorities – her baby, not her boss. Quite frankly, this sounds like something to celebrate. People in general acknowledge that for good mothers, their baby comes first, not their job. And I agree with GP – offer maternity leave and the sweeping majority of women will choose to stay at home, with their babies, where they should be.
leeanne commented on Mar 24 11 at 11:10 pmUnfortunatly, in most cases women cant be home with their children anymore. Both parents if there is another parent in the picture, has to work. Its not like back in the day when the shovenistic male would go out and work and the mother would stay home, bake bread and take care of the kids and clean the house all day.
GP commented on Mar 25 11 at 7:40 am“the shovenistic male would go out and work”????
oy!
Mama Tao commented on Mar 25 11 at 9:16 amHow very very dare they! I’ll have you know that I am not ignorant in any way. But one one had I must admit that women don’t need to be going out and getting jobs anyway. Our job is to stay home and Breastfeed the kids and family.
Once we have women running all willy nilly into careers and such is when we start losing the safty of family.
On my blog, I tell people that my husband works 4 jobs so that
I can be the best SAHM I can be–and that is how it should be!!
themamatao.blogspot.com
GP commented on Mar 25 11 at 10:51 amPeople, your comments would have much more validity if you could please at least make a valiant attempt to spell and form semi-complete sentences. We all know there are typos, mixed up homonyms and things like that that happen to the best of us sometimes…but it seems we’re reaching a new low with some of these comments.
Jeanne-Marie commented on Mar 27 11 at 8:23 pmBefore, during, and after my pregnancy, as well as while pumping at work for nearly a year, I was MUCH more productive than my fellow childbearing OR childless coworkers. I would pass coworkers in the same spot chit-chatting on my way to and from pumping breaks. Other mothers in the workplace often felt the need to call their childcare providers (who were sometimes their spouses!) multiple times in a day, for over ten minutes at a time. I really came to resent the other working mothers who give the rest of us a bad name, and the others who had no excuse for being so lazy. There is never an excuse for laziness – and the adage is true that if you want something done, ask a busy woman!
Trisha commented on Mar 28 11 at 10:15 amThis is absolutely insane. I have breastfed 7 children and I have worked, and
I am also educated. It is what I chose to do long before my children where born. I wanted what was best nutritionally for them. I am not a hippie nor and I less competent in math? I have been a retail manager for 15yrs, and I amnow study for a psychology degree. I can’t believe the ignorance that still surrounds breastfeeding. I can only guess that these comments probably start some where at the formula making level. This is sad!
Vanessa White commented on Mar 28 11 at 10:20 amOkay this is so wrong.
Really can a women just feed her kid
I am a mother to a five month old baby boy
Who I am breastfeeding
He won’t take a bottle
I want to go back to college
But I can’t
It’s sad that women who Breastfeed are seen a certain way in sour world
Breast is best
And it always will be for me and my children I would like to have and the one I do have
Rosana commented on Mar 28 11 at 2:47 pmThanks GP, that was going to be my argument (if I ever had to make one) when I was getting ready to tell my boss that I was going to be taking 3/15 minute break every day to pump for a year. That is about the same time (if not less) that my smokers co-workers will take for a cigarette breaks or for my boss to bullshit with some other men in the office.
However, I always worked hard to catch up with my work and never made excuses or asked for special treatment because I was a working mom. That is one thing women have to understand. They have to make it work because if they don’t, then they will ruin it for other moms.
Elizabeth commented on Apr 01 11 at 8:40 amI have to make a comment about the formula feeding low income mothers. The program that pays for that formula is W.I.C. they also encourage breast feeding. They provide women with food supplement and the option to borrow an electric or hand pump when the baby is unable to latch on. I used an electric pump for 3 weeks with my younger son, which I wouldn’t have been able to do if it wasn’t for the support of this wonderful program. I also breast feed my younger son for nine months even though the formula was free, because as a mom I know that it is important to do what is best for my child. That said I can see how that would make me less available to work. There are also mothers who don’t care to spend time with their children I guess that makes them more employable. I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to be a stay at home mother, but have all the admiration in the world for mothers who aren’t able to stay home whether for financial reasons or simply for their sanity.
Kelly commented on May 28 11 at 6:53 pmVery nicely said Elizabeth! Not only is it ignorant to assume that one is incompetent due to their choice in how they feed their child, it is also ignorant to assume that you know anything about them, their financial status, or their intelligence level. Just because they choose differently from what you perceive to be politically correct does not mean that your opinion of them is right! Every woman has a right and a reason you may not agree with when it comes to how they choose to feed their child. But it is their choice, not yours! Bottom line, worry about how you want to feed your own kid, and keep your mouth shut about how anybody else chooses to feed their kid! Unless they are neglecting and starving that child…it’s simply none of you effing business! ;)
Kelly commented on May 28 11 at 6:53 pm*your
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