New moms can’t win

New moms are damned if they do and damned if they don’t take maternity leave, a new study reveals.

Women are judged harshly on the job whether they hustle back to work or take time off with their babies, according to research from New York University and the University of Exeter.

Mothers who take the leave are seen as less competent and worthy of raises and promotions, says the study in the May 31 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

But moms who get right back to work are frowned upon for being bad parents, the study indicates.

“This is a no-win situation for women,” said Thekla Morgenroth of the University of Exeter, who co-authored the report with Professor Madeline Heilman of NYU.

“Both decisions had negative consequences, albeit in different domains.”

To study the genderbased Catch-22, researchers interviewed 137 women and 157 men, mostly working professionals, in the United States and Britain.

The participants were given a set of “facts” about several fictional women and asked to rate them as employees and as parents. The only difference between the imaginary women was whether they took maternity leave.

The majority of participants said the women who took the time off were “significantly less competent” and “less worthy of rewards” from employers.

By contrast, the moms who didn’t take the leave were deemed “more worthy” of the rewards — but less competent as mothers.

“Our results show that perceptions of competence, whether in the work or family domain, were never boosted — but only impaired — by the maternity-leave decision,” Morgenroth said.

Participants judged the moms harshly regardless of their own ages, nationalities and parental statuses, according to researchers.

This “suggests these attitudes are universal and pervasive in our culture,” Morgenroth said.

The majority of participants had no children and worked full-time. Their average age was 33 years old.