Forget the “Mommy Track”: Temporal Flexibility Increases Promotion Aspirations for Women and Reduces Gender Gaps

Abstract

Gender gaps in pay and career advancement increase as people take on greater caregiving responsibilities, with large gaps persistent in high-level, time-intensive positions. Given extant research concerning gender roles, and job demands and resources, I hypothesized that temporal flexibility, in particular control over work hours, would positively affect promotion aspirations, especially for women. Moreover, this interaction effect would be mediated by anticipation of work–family conflict. Results from two studies—correlational and experimental—supported these predictions. In Study 1, using archival data from the General Social Survey, results revealed an interaction between gender and temporal flexibility on promotion aspirations. Among a sample of working parents with children, temporal flexibility was significantly and positively associated with promotion aspirations for women with the opposite pattern found for men. A subsequent experimental study, concerning a promotion to a time-intensive position with an online sample of parents, revealed that women reported lower aspirations for this type of promotion compared to men when the position was characterized as inflexible, but the gap disappeared when the position offered temporal flexibility. Anticipated work–family conflict explained this interaction effect. Highlighting flexibility and schedule control increased promotion aspirations among women, an important implication for employers looking to recruit and promote female employees. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843211003070