"Maternal gatekeeping" refers to a situation where a mother limits or controls the involvement of another person, usually the father, in parenting their child. It can happen when a mother feels the need to take charge or believes only she knows best.
Full definition
Mom as Gateway is a workshop designed to address what is known
as Maternal Gatekeeping — when a mother's beliefs about a father, as well as her behaviors, hinder a father's involvement with his children.
Overall, these results supported Hypothesis 1a regarding the role of hostility toward men
in maternal gatekeeping, and provided somewhat weaker support for Hypothesis 1b regarding the role of hostile sexism toward women.
We conclude with implications for the study of the process
of maternal gatekeeping and paternal involvement in correctional facilities.
That is, hostile sexist attitudes are expected to have an indirect effect on the time invested in childcare and the relative share of childcare tasks, mediated
by maternal gatekeeping.
Multiple regression analyses predicting involvement in childcare from maternal gatekeeping
In fact, studies show that mothers who engage in
more maternal gatekeeping behaviors result in fathers who do less with the kids.
Some of these programs focus specifically on the co-parenting relationship and are designed to
reduce maternal gatekeeping and enhance collaboration between parents (McHale and Carter 2012; Pruett et al. 2017).
Finally, hostile sexist attitudes toward men and women had an indirect effect on the mothers» hours of care and relative share of childcare tasks, mediated
though maternal gatekeeping.
It is therefore suggested that
maternal gatekeeping plays a mediating role in the relationships between ambivalent sexism and gendered division of childcare.
Bias - corrected bootstrap estimates for ambivalent sexism with mediation by maternal gatekeeping
We
proposed maternal gatekeeping as a mediator through which hostile sexist attitudes toward men and women facilitate gendered division of childcare.
Specifically, it advances the claim that
maternal gatekeeping tendencies are shaped, in part, by women's hostile sexist attitudes toward men and women and, in turn have consequences for their involvement in childcare.
This happens a lot, and it even has an official name:
maternal gatekeeping.
Research has shown that females can engage in «
maternal gatekeeping» functions, which diminish a father's likelihood of engaging in equal parental care.
In addition, the literature on «
maternal gatekeeping» suggests that mothers who experience conflict or distrust in their relationship with the father — or have concerns about the fathers» characteristics — may take active steps to prevent these men from interacting with their children.
«
Maternal Gatekeeping, Coparenting Quality, and Fathering Behavior in Families With Infants.»
«
Maternal Gatekeeping: Mothers» Beliefs and Behaviors That Inhibit Greater Father Involvement in Family Work.»
Experts call it «
maternal gatekeeping,» which is loosely defined as behaviors or attitudes that moms use to either encourage or discourage dads from being involved in raising their children.
Our results highlight the role of hostile sexist attitudes in
both maternal gatekeeping and involvement in childcare.
Maternal gatekeeping has been shown to correlate with a more traditional division of family work (Allen and Hawkins 1999; Fagan and Barnett 2003; Gaunt 2008).
Maternal gatekeeping, in turn, has been shown to correlate with higher maternal involvement and lower paternal involvement in childcare (Allen and Hawkins 1999; Fagan and Barnett 2003; Gaunt 2008).
Maternal gatekeeping is therefore suggested as a mediator in the relationships between mothers» sexist ideologies and the division of family roles.