Running head: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

Resume Bias: Martial Status and Maternal Status Influence the Favorability of an Applicant
Fionne J. Ma, Kassandra Grimm, and Lindsay Camerik
University of California, Los Angeles

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

Abstract
The goal of this study was to examine the effects of maternal and marital status on the
favorability rating of an applicant. Sixteen female psychology students from University of
California, Los Angeles participated in this study. Each participant was given four fictitious
resumes that varied in maternal and marital status. Participants were asked to rate each condition
on how favorable they found an applicant to be. Our results found that mothers were rated
favorably but not significantly and married women were rated favorably but not significantly.
Our results also found no significant interaction between marital and maternal status.
Keywords: marital status, maternal status, resume bias, employer discrimination, work

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

Resume Bias: Marital Status and Maternal Status Influence the Favorability of an Applicant
Many mothers and married women in todays society are placed at a major disadvantage
in the workplace and in the workforce. It is thought that mothers are faced with larger wage gaps,
perceived as less competent, and hired less often compared to non-mothers. It is also thought that
non-mothers receive relatively better benefits and are less likely to suffer from promotion, wage,
and hiring penalty. Additionally, single women are expected to stay longer hours and have fewer
obligations outside of work than married women. Therefore, mothers, especially those who are
married, are thought to be penalized more than non-mothers in the job market. This is important
because mothers are unable to seek work to support their children and continue to remain jobless.
Correll, Bernard, and Paik (2007) designed an experiment to explore how an individuals
paternal status would affect ratings of hireability. The experimenters created fictitious resumes
and memo notes that had equally qualified applicants but varied in the applicants parental status.
Participants were asked to rate the applicants in terms of perceived competence, commitment,
and hireability. The experimenters found that participants rated mothers to be significantly less
competent and less committed than non-mothers. Experimenters also found that participants
rated mothers significantly lower than non-mothers when hiring. Because the resumes varied
only in paternal statuses, the experimenters concluded that the differences between the ratings of
a mother and a non-mother could not be caused by skills and productivities, suggesting that nonmothers are more likely to be hired than mothers.
Jordan and Zitek (2012) designed an experiment to explore how a females marital status
would affect ratings of suitability. The experimenters created two fictitious female Facebook
profiles with identical personal information but manipulated their marital statuses: single or
married. Participants were then told to rate their level of agreement with four separate

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

statements. Experimenters were unable to conclude a significant effect and interaction, but they
found that participants rated single female applicants as more suitable for the job than married
applicants. Because the Facebook profiles only varied in martial statuses, the experimenters
concluded that the differences between the ratings of a single and married woman could not
caused by the personal information, suggesting that single woman are more likely to be hired
than married woman.
Lastly, Aranda and Glick (2013) designed an experiment to explore whether a working
mothers self-professed devotion would affect hiring recommendations. The experimenters
created two dossiers with identical personal information but manipulated the self-descriptions:
work-oriented or family-oriented. Participants were asked to rate how likely they thought the
candidate should be hired. Experimenters were unable to conclude a significant interaction and
significant main effect. However, there was still a main effect of self-description on hiring
recommendations. The experimenters found that working mothers received a less favorable
hiring recommendation if the mother described herself as family-oriented rather than workoriented. Because the dossiers varied only in self-descriptions, the experimenters concluded that
the differences between the ratings of a work-oriented mother and a family-oriented mother
could not be caused by the personal information presented, suggesting that work-oriented
mothers are more likely to be hired family-oriented mothers.
The present experiment was designed to further extend the exploration of the effects of
martial status and maternal status on the favorability rating of an applicant. In order to
understand the source of these effects, we included measures of marital status, as it has been
shown in Correll et al. (2007) to impact the ratings of an unmarried and married applicants, and
maternal status, as it has been shown in Jordan et al. (2012) to impact the hiring preference of a

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

single or married females. Our design was similar to Correll et al. (2007) where we collected
responses from participants who viewed four fictitious resumes and rated each individual
condition.
We hypothesized that, when given four equally qualified applicants who differed only on
maternal and marital status, there would be a main effect on maternal status: Participants would
rate applicants who were non-mothers significantly higher than applicants who were mothers.
The main effect of maternal status were based upon Correll et al. (2007) that also found mothers
to be seen as less competent, committed, and suitable for hire. We also hypothesized that there
would be a main effect of marital status because participants would rate unmarried applicants
significantly higher than married applicants. The main effect of marital status were based upon
Jordan et al. (2012) that also found single women to be rated as more suitable for the job than
married women. Finally, we hypothesized that there would be a significant interaction between
maternal status and marital status: Under the conditions of unmarried, we hypothesized that nonmothers would be scored higher than mothers, whereas when the conditions portrayed married,
non-mothers would be scored higher. The assumption behind this significant interaction is that
married mothers, especially those who are family-oriented, are rated as less likely to be hired
than single woman without children (Aranda & Glick, 2013; Correll et al., 2007; Jordan et al.,
2012)
Method
Participants
Sixteen female University of California, Los Angeles undergraduate students (Mage =
20.4 years, age range: 19-20 years) participated in the experiment in exchange for partial course
credit. They were enrolled in a psychology course and were not randomly selected.

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

Design
In this experiment, we conducted a within-subjects design. The two independent
variables were marital status (married or unmarried) and maternal status (mother or non-mother).
Marital status was defined as a woman who is currently and legally married to a living spouse
and shares a household. Maternal status was defined as a woman who has primary responsibility
for only two children and is currently not expecting. The dependent variable for the experiment
was favorability. Favorability was defined as how competent, committed, and suitable for hire
the participant rated a fictitious resume. Each condition was asked a single question: how
favorable was this applicant? The favorability rating ranged on an interval scale from 1 (least
favorable applicant) to 5 (most favorable applicant).
Materials
The materials used for this experiment were: 16 instruction sheets, 16 manila folders, 64
resumes, and 64 interview notes. Written instructions were provided for each participant and
contained the following: Participants were asked to play the role of a prospective employer and
to rate the favorability of each resume. Both the resumes and the interview notes were used to
manipulate the maternal and marital status: resumes were manipulated by giving each condition
one work-related experience that reflected maternal status and interview notes were manipulated
by giving each condition one interview note that reflected marital and maternal status. All four
fictitious resumes had relatively equal qualifications and skills. The resumes listed a bachelors
degree in accounting from one of four out-of-California universities, an internship for three years
at one of the Big Four accounting firms, and two accounting jobs that accumulated to eight years
of work experience. Furthermore, three additional resumes were created per each of the four
fictitious resumes. Each fictitious resume and their three additional resumes varied in maternal

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

status: Two resumes listed non-mother-associated work experience and the other two resumes
listed mother-associated work experience (see Appendix A for complete notes). As for the
interview notes that were stapled to the resume, the age of the applicants, 35 years old, years of
work experience, eight years, were constant across all conditions, but the maternal and marital
status were manipulated (see Appendix B for complete notes). Therefore, for each condition,
there were four equally qualified resumes that varied in maternal and marital status. Condition
A were married mothers, condition B were unmarried mothers, condition C were married
mothers, and condition D were unmarried non-mothers (see Appendix C for complete notes).
Every manila folder contained resumes in each condition.
Procedure
The experimenters randomly distributed previously shuffled manila folders to the
participants. The participants were instructed to follow the instruction sheet given to them and to
finish reading the instructions before opening the folder. The instructions stated that they had just
built a startup company and were looking to hire an accountant. Their assistant had conducted a
prior interview and took brief notes on all of the candidates. The assistant then chose the top four
applicants that she believed would be the most fit for the job and placed those resumes, with her
interview notes attached, inside the folder. The participants were told to provide a single
favorability rating score for each applicant on a scale from 1 (least favorable applicant) to 5
(most favorable applicant). The participants then placed all the resumes back into the folder.
Results
Figure 1 presents the average applicant favorability ratings when they were presented as
mothers versus non-mothers and as a function of their marital status. Looking at the pattern of
results displayed in Figure 1, it appears that resumes, in general, were rated more favorably but

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

not significantly when presented as non-mothers than mothers. Additionally, resumes were rated
more favorably but not significantly when presented as married than unmarried. The degree to
which a resumes favorability was affected by maternal status appears to be depended on the
resumes marital status. More specifically, when applicants were presented as married or
unmarried, maternal status had favorable but not significant effects on the ratings.
To test these apparent effects, the data were analyzed using a 2 x 2 within-subjects
ANOVA, which revealed no significant main effect of marital status, such that average
favorability rating was not significantly higher when applicants were presented as either married
(M = 4.16, SD = 0.72) or unmarried (M = 4.03, SD = 0.56), F(1, 15) = 0.35, MSE = 0.72, p =
0.56. Furthermore, there was no significant main effect of maternal status, such that the average
favorability rating was not significantly higher when applicants were presented as either nonmothers (M = 4.16, SD = 0.63) or mothers (M = 4.03, SD = 0.59), F(1, 15) = 0.48, MSE = 0.52, p
= 0.50. Additionally, the apparent interaction between maternal status and marital status that is
indicated in Figure 1 also revealed to be not significant, F(1, 15) = 0.08, MSE = 0.80, p = 0.78.
To compare individual condition means, multiple t-tests, with a Bonferroni correction to
maintain an alpha level of 0.05, were conducted. When presented as mothers, the average
favorability rating for applicants was revealed to have no significant simple main effect when
they were presented as either married (M = 4.06, SD = 0.77) or unmarried (M = 4.00, SD = 0.73),
t(15) = 0.27, p = 0.79. Additionally, when presented as non-mothers, the average favorability
rating for applicants was revealed to have no significant simple main effect when they were
presented as either married (M = 4.25, SD = 1.06) or unmarried (M = 4.06, SD = 0.85), t(15) =
0.51, p = 0.62. Thus, as indicated in Figure 1, maternal status did not have a significant effect on
the average favorability ratings when presented as either married or unmarried.

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

Furthermore, when presented as married, the average favorability rating for applicants
was revealed to have no significant simple main effect when they were presented as either nonmothers (M = 4.25, SD = 1.06) or mothers (M = 4.06, SD = 0.77), t(15) = 0.64, p = 0.53.
Additionally, when presented as unmarried, the average favorability ratings for applicants was
revealed to have no significant simple main effect when they were presented as either nonmothers (M = 4.06, SD = 0.85) or mothers (M = 4.00, SD = 0.73), t(15) = 0.22, p = 0.83. Thus, as
indicated in Figure 1, marital status did not have a significant effect on the average favorability
ratings when presented as either mothers or non-mothers.
Discussion
As outlined previously, the goal of the study was to examine the effects of marital and
maternal status on the overall favorability rating of an applicant. We hypothesized that, when
given four equally qualified applicants who differed only on marital and maternal status,
participants would rate non-mothers significantly more favorable than mothers. We also
hypothesized that participants would rate unmarried women significantly more favorable than
married women. Lastly, we hypothesized that there would be a significant interaction between
maternal status and marital status: Under the conditions of unmarried, we hypothesized that nonmothers would be scored higher than mothers, whereas when the conditions portrayed married,
non-mothers would be scored higher than mothers.
Contrary to our hypotheses, our results were unable to support our original hypothesis
that participants would rate non-mothers significantly more favorable than mothers. Although
maternal status had no significant main effect, there was a difference between average nonmother score and mother score, such that mothers had a lower average rating than non-mothers.
As opposed to Correll et al. (2007) who found mothers to be rated significantly lower than non-

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

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mothers when hiring, it is possible that we were unable to find a significant main effect because
we had only used one measure to collect data while they had used multiple measures. We were
also unable to support our original hypothesis that participants would rate married women
significantly more favorable than unmarried women. In fact, results showed no significant main
effect of marital status, but there was a difference between the average score of married women
and unmarried women, such that married women had a higher average rating than unmarried
women. This was inconsistent with Jordan et al. (2012) that found single female applicants to be
rated higher than married applicants; however, they also found no significant main effect on
marital status. It is possible that we were unable to find a significant main effect because
participants were confused with our multiple conditions, whereas Jordan et al. (2012) focused on
manipulating one variable. Additionally, we predicted that there would be a significant
interaction between maternal and martial status, such that the effect of marital status on an
applicants favorability is more pronounced for a non-mother than a mother. However, we were
ultimately unable to support this hypothesis because we found no significant interaction. As
mentioned before, Correll et al. (2007) found that maternal status was significant in their
experiment and Jordan et al. (2012) found that marital status were rated more favorably in their
experiment; thus, if we had found the same results it would have definitely driven the direction
of our interaction to be significant.
There are a variety of reasons that we may have failed to replicate results from previous
research. First, the sample size, 16 participants, of this study was extremely small, making it
difficult to find significant relationships in the data. It is possible that the small sample size could
have caused the results to show no significance, such that there were not enough data collected.
Second, the participants were college students with a mean age of 20-years-old. These

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participants were definitely not a representative distribution of the population and group of
people to whom results will be generalized towards. It is almost with certain that the majority of
20-year-old college students have probably never been put in a powerful decision-making
position where they needed to hire someone. Therefore, with respect to generalizability, it is
possible that their lack of experience in the workforce and the lack of knowledge on what to look
for in a potential employee could have caused the inconsistent results. For future research, a
bigger sample size and better representation of participants are needed: Participants should be
actual employers or full-time employees for a minimum of three years. Third, the construct
validity used to collect our data did not measure what it was intended to measure. Favorability
was a limitation because we had participants take three different criterias into consideration for
an overall single favorability score. It is possible that participants based their ratings of
favorability off of one judgment (e.g., rating a participant off of perceived competence instead of
overall favorability). For future research, a pilot study should be conducted or criterias should
be split into separate measurements.
Hypothetically speaking, if our results were significant, the next logical reason to pursue
further with this experiment is to see the effect of marital status and maternal status on different
types of jobs. In our study, prospective employers were looking to hire applicants for a genderneutral job. However, the type of job could possibly affect the likelihood of hiring and
favorability of an applicant. For example, if applicants were applying for an emergency room
(ER) doctor position, the results could perhaps be different, such that participants would
probably rate unmarried non-mothers more favorably. This is thought to be true because ER
doctors are constantly on-call and work long shifts; therefore, this would definitely not be a
suitable job for mothers with outside commitment, such as caring for young children. On the

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other hand, if applicants were applying for an elementary school teacher position, the results
could perhaps be different, such that participants would probably rate mothers significantly more
favorable. This is thought to be the case because mothers who have children of their own are
more likely than non-mothers to be experienced in how to discipline and handle younger
children. Thus, for future directions, it would be interesting to see how participants would rate
applicants based on the effects of martial and maternal status and type of job.
In conclusion, our study clearly shows that more research needs to be conducted to see
the effect of martial status and maternal status on the favorability rating of an applicant. Many
women, especially married women and mothers, are entering the workforce in a variety of
different fields. Although it is rarely the case that one specifies their marital and maternal status
to employers, employers can definitely tell by various indicators: wearing a wedding ring,
talking about children, and addressing Mrs. on an application. Thus, employers perceptions of
married women, especially mothers, can be unfavorably biased. Although our study found no
significances, we still found non-mothers to be rated more favorably than mothers, and married
non-mothers to be rated more favorably than unmarried mothers. Therefore, in light of recent
evidence that people do subtly discriminate against mothers, especially unmarried mothers, we
feel hopeful that this evidence would help future research re-identify and conduct further
experiments on the effects of maternal and marital status on resume bias.

RESUME BIAS: MARITAL STATUS AND PARENTAL STATUS

References
Aranda, B., & Glick, P. (2013). Signaling devotion to work over family undermines the
motherhood penalty. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 17(1), 9199. Doi:
1368430213485996.
Correll, S. J., Benard, S., & Paik, I. (2007). Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty?
American Journal of Sociology, 112, 12971338. Doi: 10.1086/511799
Jordan, A. H., & Zitek, M. E. (2012). Marital Status in Perceptions of Employees. Basic and
Applied Social Psychology, 34(5), 474481. Doi: 10.1080/01973533.2012.711687

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Maternal Status
Avg. Favorability Score

Mother

Nonmother

4
3
2
1
0
Married

Unmarried

Marital Status

Figure 1. Comparisons of average favorability scores were shown for mother and non-mother on
marital status.

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Appendix A
Non-mother-associated work experience listed one resume to be a Financial Analyst for the
Glenrock Neighborhood Council and the other resume to be a Treasurer at the Redwood Falls
Homeowner Association. Mother-associated work experience listed one resume to be a
Treasurer at Guardian Heights Elementary School and the other resume to be a Financial
Analyst for the Elmer Creek Youth Soccer Club.

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Appendix B
Married mother notes included the phrase: Married to Michael, mother of Vivian and
Matthew. Unmarried mother notes included the phrase: Mother of Michelle and Christopher.
Married non-mother notes included the phrase: Married to Joshua. Unmarried non-mother
notes included the phrase: Unmarried, no kids, and not currently expecting.

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Appendix C
Condition A had an interview note that stated Married to Michael, mother of Vivian and
Matthew and had resumes that listed either Treasurer at Guardian Heights Elementary School
or Financial Analyst for the Elmer Creek Youth Soccer Club. Condition B had an interview
note that stated Mother of Michelle and Christopher and had resumes that listed either
Treasurer at Guardian Heights Elementary School or Financial Analyst for the Elmer Creek
Youth Soccer Club. Condition C had an interview note that state Married to Joshua and had
resumes that listed either Financial Analyst for the Glenrock Neighborhood Council or
Treasurer at the Redwood Falls Homeowner Association. Condition D had an interview note
Unmarried, no kids, and not currently expecting and had resumes that listed either Financial
Analyst for the Glenrock Neighborhood Council or Treasurer at the Redwood Falls
Homeowner Association.