How Our Masculine Work Culture Forces Working Mothers Out

New research reveals that we're still living in a man's world. Working mothers are leaving work because they don't want to behave like men, according to researchers at the University of Leicester.

Researchers explain that working mothers are expected to go early to the office early, stay late at the office and attend work events afterwards because working culture is still organized by men- who are significantly less involved in household chores and childcare.

The latest study reveals that this tiresome tug-of-war between work and family life is forcing many working mothers to quit their jobs.

"Unless mothers mimic successful men, they do not look the part for success in organizations," researcher Emma Cahusac, series producer of BBC Television's The Culture Show and an organizational psychologist specializing in problems faced by organizations, and Shireen Kanji, Senior Lecturer in Work and Organization at the University of Leicester School of Management, wrote in a study paper.

An overwhelming number of women interviewed for the study report that it was difficult to combine work and motherhood because of the dominant culture of "presenteeism" - the idea that they should be at their desks until late, even if there was nothing to do.

"I would be in work by eight, but I would have to leave by six and actually I could do the job perfectly well,' said Susan, an ex-banker, according to the paper. Susan said that her six o'clock departure even provoked "barbed comments" from other women who didn't have children.

Through a series of interviews, Cahusac and Kanji revealed that women not only accepted but also encouraged the masculine culture of the workplace-that is before they had children.

Researchers said that the many women in the study felt they needed to imitate masculinity by hiding the fact that they were mothers.

"The male partners never talked about their families," Nadia, a lawyer, told researchers. "They've been very adept at keeping that separation between work and home."

The study found that mothers felt they needed to hide to fact that they were taking time off to care for their sick children,

"You definitely would have to say you were sick, not the kid was sick", said a mother who held a senior position at a charity.

Researchers said the latest findings highlight how gendered organizational culture force mothers out.

The latest study involved 26 mothers based in London who had to quit their jobs while pregnant, or following their return to work. Researchers said the women interviewed had been in professional and managerial jobs.

"Many women leave high-powered jobs because they are relegated to lesser roles and feel the need to suppress their identities as mothers," Kanji said in a news release. "This is not only unfair. As an economy, we cannot afford to waste such skilled and educated workers."

The paper is published in the journal Gender, Work and Organization.

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