Women's strike: Study shows that women are already discriminated against in the application process

Both because of existing maternity and the possibility of pregnancy, women can be disadvantaged in the labor market. This is shown by a study published in connection with the women's strike these days. On the one hand, employers may perceive women of fertile age as "at risk" of pregnancy. On the other hand, employers fear that if they hire mothers, they will be responsible for childcare more often than men due to the conservative distribution of roles and may be absent more often, for example due to sick children.

Large-scale study in German-speaking countries

Ana Fernandes from the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Economics, together with Sascha O. Becker from the University of Warwick and Doris Weichselbaumer from the University of Linz, investigated how these factors influence the hiring practices of companies in the German-speaking labor market with a large-scale correspondence study in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The researchers sent out around 9,000 fictitious applications for advertised full-time and part-time positions. In the resumes, they provided different information on marital status and number of children for the alleged applicants, but kept the age and previous work experience the same for all of them.

Even potential pregnancy prevents employment

The result makes one sit up and take notice: Women who are married, childless and work part-time are less likely to be invited for a job interview than single women. The reason for this: employers consider married people to be particularly "at risk" of becoming pregnant. At the same time, mothers of two young children are less likely to be asked for an interview than mothers of two older children, because employers fear that younger children will get sick more often and that female employees will be absent more often. The researchers attribute the differences found between full- and part-time outcomes to two factors:

1. Part-time work is much more common in German-speaking countries than in the EU, for example.
2. Part-time work is strongly rooted in the values of these societies, which perceive work and motherhood as less compatible than other European countries.

Completed family planning as an advantage

When female candidates apply for part-time employment, employers see this as a motivation for wanting to balance work and family. As a result, female applicants with a higher probability of pregnancy are disadvantaged and female applicants who signal that their family planning is complete are preferred.

Female applicants for full-time positions, on the other hand, signal that they have secure childcare regardless of their family situation, since they would otherwise not be able to reconcile the full-time position with it. Thus, female applicants for full-time positions with the same information on marital status and number of children as female applicants for part-time positions are not disadvantaged.

Conclusion of the study

1. Married but childless women applying for part-time jobs are least likely to be invited for an interview compared to other part-time applicants with different family types.
2. Women with two older children who apply for part-time jobs have the greatest chance of being interviewed compared to other types with different family compositions. This is a surprising and almost
   paradoxical result, because these jobs are typically considered particularly family-friendly.

In keeping with the theme, BFH Economics is hosting the "Discrimination in the Labor Market" conference on August 30 and 31. As part of this academic event, a roundtable discussion will be held entitled "The Cost of Outside Childcare and the
Labor market participation of women". Scheduled guests are Claudine Esseiva, City Councillor Bern (FDP), Dr. Sylvie Durrer, Director of the Federal Office for Gender Equality FOGE and Irenka Krone-Germann, Founder and Managing Director of Part-time Optimizing.

Source: Bern University of Applied Sciences