Does Being a Mom Help or Hurt? Workplace Incivility as a Function of Motherhood Status

The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which motherhood status predicts being a target of workplace incivility and moderates the relationship between incivility and negative outcomes among employed women. Participants included a nationwide sample of law school faculty members (N = 1,234; 48% female, 85% White) who completed measures of workplace incivility, parenting status, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and depression. Results showed that mothers with 3 children were treated more uncivilly than women with fewer children and that mothering mitigated negative outcomes associated with being the target of incivility. Exploratory analyses examining fatherhood status as a predictor of workplace incivility and moderator of incivility and outcomes showed that fathers reported experiencing more workplace incivility than nonfathers, but being a father did not attenuate the negative outcomes of incivility. In addition, mothers reported more incivility than fathers and childless women reported more incivility than childless men. Childless women were also the most negatively affected by incivility at work. This study advances our understanding of how motherhood status affects women's experiences at work.