Final reading summary

In the article titled “Working mothers face a ‘wall’ of bias”, Lesly Ogden

discussed why working mothers face discrimination in their work area, as

well as ways to counter this discrimination. She started her article with an

example of a women named Isabel Escobar who is a working mother, her

discrimination came from her colleagues where they said to her that she

should stay at home, and that she is supposed to be with her children rather

than coming to work. Since then Escobar have been struggling to prove to

her colleagues, men in particular, that she is capable of working and taking

care of her children at the same time. What most women face including

Escobar is specified as “maternal wall bias”, It can happen when people

view mothers to be less capable than men in doing their job. Mothers also

are viewed to have less time to work, and that they should spend this time

raising their children. Ogden stated a research that showed that women

who have children were twice as likely to be rejected in the job they are

applying to, the study also showed that working mothers are recommend a

lower salary. The same study were conducted on working fathers and no

discrimination were found against them, in fact fathers who have children
had an upper hand on men who don’t have children. Another belief that

contributes to this is that people believe that the children may suffer from

their mother’s absence due to her work, and that a mother should be at

home raising her children and the father is the one working and providing

for his family. Ogden later stated ways for mothers to counter what they

face. She stated that schools and universities should teach their students to

be fair toward everyone. Another way is to meet with their manager and

discuss their goals on the short and the long run. At the end the purpose is

to show people that mothers are very well capable of working while simul-

taneously taking care of their children.