to earn less. And they do.

Compounding the problem is a social-psychological phenomenon called “stereotype threat.” Social
scientists have observed that when members of a group are made aware of a negative stereotype, they
are more likely to perform according to that stereotype. For example, stereotypically, boys are better at
math and science than girls. When girls are reminded of their gender before a math or science test,
27
even by something as simple as checking off an M or F box at the top of the test, they perform worse.
Stereotype threat discourages girls and women from entering technical fields and is one of the key
28
reasons that so few study computer science. As a Facebook summer intern once told me, “In my
school’s computer science department, there are more Daves than girls.”

The stereotype of a working woman is rarely attractive. Popular culture has long portrayed
successful working women as so consumed by their careers that they have no personal life (think
Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl and Sandra Bullock in The Proposal). If a female character divides
her time between work and family, she is almost always harried and guilt ridden (think Sarah Jessica
Parker in I Don’t Know How She Does It). And these characterizations have moved beyond fiction. A
study found that of Millennial men and women who work in an organization with a woman in a senior
29
role, only about 20 percent want to emulate her career.

This unappealing stereotype is particularly unfortunate since most women have no choice but to
remain in the workforce. About 41 percent of mothers are primary breadwinners and earn the majority
of their family’s earnings. Another 23 percent of mothers are co-breadwinners, contributing at least a

----------------------- Page 17-----------------------

30
quarter of the family’s earnings. The number of women supporting families on their own is
increasing quickly; between 1973 and 2006, the proportion of families headed by a single mother grew
31
from one in ten to one in five. These numbers are dramatically higher in Hispanic and African-
American families. Twenty-seven percent of Latino children and 52 percent of African-American
32 △△文△檔△共△享△與△在△線△閱△讀△
children are being raised by a single mother.

Our country lags considerably behind others in efforts to help parents take care of their children and
stay in the workforce. Of all the industrialized nations in the world, the United States is the only one
33
without a paid maternity leave policy. As Ellen Bravo, director of the Family Values @ Work
consortium, observed, most “women are not thinking about ‘having it all,’ they’re worried about
losing it all—their jobs, their children’s health, their families’ financial stability—because of the
34
regular conflicts that arise between being a good employee and a responsible parent.”

For many men, the fundamental assumption is that they can have both a successful professional life
and a fulfilling personal life. For many women, the assumption is that trying to do both is difficult at
best and impossible at worst. Women are surrounded