Purdue University and Boston College Together with Alliance for Work-Life Progress Announce
the Winners of the 9th Annual Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award
Chestnut Hill, MA (June 2, 2009) The Center for Families at Purdue University and the Boston College Center for Work & Family, with the support of Alliance for Work-Life Progress at WorldatWork, are delighted to announce Shelley Correll, Stephen Benard and In Paik as the winners of the 9th Annual Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.
Named in honor of Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who has been identified as the most influential contributor to modern literature on work and family, the Kanter Award is given for the best research paper(s) published during the year. The rigorous nomination process for award selection involves 35 scholarly reviewers from 11 countries who decide on the Kanter winners from among over 2500 articles published more than 70 scholarly journals. This award raises awareness of excellent work-family research, fosters debate about standards of excellence, and identifies the “best of the best” studies on which to base future research.
“This is the first study to show consistent, significant evidence for the motherhood penalty over a broad range of measures. Far from being an “apples to oranges” comparison, the male and female applicants who were evaluated in these studies were exactly equal by experimental design. That parental status disadvantaged only female applicants is strong evidence of discrimination.”
American Journal of Sociology Volume 112, 2007p. 1332-1335
Shelley J. Correll, Stephen Benard, and In Paik co-authored “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” which is publishedin the American Journal of Sociology. The goal of this project was to measure the chances that mothers (so identified in their “fake” resumes) would be called for an interview or recommended for hire, compared to childless women, fathers, and childless men. In the first study, raters were asked to evaluate two job applications that were similar except for gender and parental status. Evaluators consistently rated mothers as less competent and less committed to paid work than nonmothers. In contrast, fathers were rated MORE positively than nonfathers. In the second study, the researchers submitted ‘fake’ resumes in response to 638 job ads over an 18 month period. Callbacks to request interviews were tracked via a computerized voice mail system. Childless women received 2.1 times as many callbacks as mothers with similar credentials. The researchers concluded that the ‘motherhood penalty’ is alive and well, even when examined with highly controlled experimental methods in both laboratory and ‘real life’ settings.
Shelley J. Correll received the Kanter Award on behalf of her team on June 2, 2009 at the Awards Breakfast at the WorldatWork Total Rewards Conference in Seattle, WA. For more information about WorldatWork and the conference, please visit worldatwork.org.
The Center for Families at Purdue University and the Boston College Center for Work & Family developed the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award to raise the awareness of high quality work-family research among the scholar, consultant and practitioner communities. Through AWLP’s generous sponsorship, the standards of quality for work-family research will continue to rise, and actionable findings from the best studies will become more commonplace in business communities to inform policy and best people practices.
A new business-focused publication synthesizing for corporate audiences the Top 10 Takeaways from the Kanter finalists, and featuring a summary of the winning article, author interview, and a full listing of the 20 nominated articles for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research can be accessed at www.bc.edu/cwf. For more information on the Kanter Award or on the award winners, please call Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth at (765) 494-6026 or Jacquelyn B. James at (617) 552-2860.
With research, education, and outreach, the Center for Families at Purdue University strengthens services to families provided by employers, legislators, and others. The Midwestern Work-Family Association (MWFA) was created through a partnership of The Center for Families at Purdue University and leading Midwestern employers. MWFA advocates for quality work environments that are consistent with business objectives.
Founded in 1990, the Boston College Center for Work & Family is committed to enhancing the quality of life of today’s workforce by providing leadership for the integration of work and life, an essential for business and community success. The Boston College Center for Work & Family vision is that companies and communities will work together to ensure their mutual prosperity and the well being of employees and their families.
Alliance for Work-Life Progress (www.awlp.org) is dedicated to advancing work-life as a business strategy integrating work, family and community. An entity of WorldatWork (www.worldatwork.org), AWLP defines and recognizes innovation and best practices, facilitates dialogue among various sectors and promotes work-life thought leadership.
