The Leadership Legacy Moms Leave Their Children
Originally published by for Georgia State University News
Mothers have been celebrated for their nurturing spirit and unwavering dedication to their children’s well-being for generations. However, a recent study led by a team of researchers at Georgia State University sheds light on a previously unexplored facet of this influence — the impact of mothers in leadership roles on their children’s leadership development.
Derek J. Stotler, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Management at Georgia State University during the inception of the project and currently assistant professor in the Department of Management and Leadership Programs at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and Songqi Liu, a professor in Robinson’s Department of Management who specializes in how working parents cope with their work and family demands, spearheaded a research team to uncover the relationship between mothers in leadership roles and how they’ve shaped their children’s career trajectories. The co-authors of the unpublished working paper, titled, “A Mother’s Leadership Legacy: Examining the Mother-To-Child Crossover of Leadership,” include Chad Hartnell, an associate professor in the Management Department at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business; Zhiqing Zhou of the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins University; and Chenwei Liao of the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at Michigan State University.
Liu said the team “observed a gap in research that often portrayed working mothers solely as caregivers, neglecting their potential influence as role models. The increasing number of women in leadership positions sparked our curiosity about the impact on their families. Our research shows mothers can hold positions of significant influence at work while simultaneously contribute to their children’s leadership development.”