Succeeding as a First Gen Parent In Corporate America

For many minorities, career advancement is shaped by more than qualifications or performance. It is shaped by subtle social cues, unspoken expectations, assumed knowledge, and cultural norms that determine who belongs and who does not. These dynamics often operate beneath awareness, making cultural barriers in corporate America difficult to name but deeply felt. Headline after headline seems to reinforce an underlying truth of consistent layoffs and job cuts. A recent Forbes article examined why over 300,000 women of color, for example, have left or been cut from their jobs. 

Dr. Anna Kallschmidt, PhD, is an industrial-organizational psychologist whose research focuses on the hidden cultural rules that govern belonging, legitimacy, and success in professional and institutional environments. Her work examines how social class, cultural background, and intersectionality continue to shape career outcomes even after individuals gain education, credentials, or entry into elite spaces. Her research is especially relevant to minority parents, whose professional lives are often shaped by both workplace norms and caregiving realities.

“A lot of times it’s really subtle. It’s not that anyone is saying, ‘You don’t belong here,’ but you can tell in the way people talk, the language they use, who they’re talking to.”

For minority parents, especially women in corporate spaces, these hidden rules collide with caregiving responsibilities, limited access to informal networks, and heightened scrutiny at work. This subtlety is what makes these barriers so powerful. Exclusion is rarely explicit. Instead, it is embedded in tone, familiarity, and who is addressed as an insider.

How “We” Language Creates Invisible Barriers at Work

One of the clearest ways belonging is signaled, Dr. Kallschmidt explains, is through collective language.

“People who feel like they belong will often speak from a place of ‘we,’ like we do this, this is how we operate, and if you don’t already know that, you’re immediately on the outside.”

In corporate environments, “we” language assumes shared experience about how meetings work, how flexibility is negotiated, how ambition is expressed. Minority parents who did not grow up adjacent to corporate culture, or who are navigating parenthood without institutional support, often lack access to this assumed knowledge.

Cultural mistranslation is often misinterpreted by hiring managers as a lack of individual contribution. That being said, it doesn’t mean all misreadings are accidental. 

“I think it's not need to say that it would be naive to say that there are intentional gatekeepers who are aware they're doing this and they're doing it for a reason.”

This perspective can serve as a disadvantage to companies that can set themselves up for failure in pursuit of a hyper individualistic work culture that inhibits productive teamwork. 

Unspoken Rules and the Hiring Gap

For aspiring professionals trying to understand how to get hired, these unspoken norms are especially consequential.

“There are all these unspoken rules, and if you don’t already know them, nobody really stops to explain them to you.”

Hiring processes often reward cultural fluency over raw competence. Interview expectations, confidence cues, and even how career gaps are discussed tend to align with dominant norms. Minority parents or individuals are frequently evaluated through these lenses without being told what standards they are being measured against. Becoming aware of cultural differences and barriers will help you understand how to navigate situations with more confidence.

This creates a structural disadvantage that feels like individual failure. This is an added psychological cost that adds on to the pressure for minority groups looking to excel in their careers. 

“A lot of people internalize that as something being wrong with them, when really it’s about not fitting into the existing culture.”

The Psychological Cost for Minority Parents

For minority parents, this internalization is intensified by existing narratives around productivity, availability, and commitment. Instead of recognizing cultural barriers, individuals are encouraged, implicitly or explicitly to self-correct, adapt, or do more.

This is especially true for women in corporate environments, who are often balancing professional ambition with caregiving expectations that the workplace was not designed to accommodate.

Why Inclusion Statements Fall Short

Many organizations attempt to address these issues through messaging. But Dr. Kallschmidt draws a clear distinction between stated inclusion and lived experience.

“Belonging isn’t about being told you belong, it’s about feeling it in your interactions.”

Belonging is reinforced through everyday signals: being looped into decisions, having norms explained rather than assumed, and being granted flexibility without penalty. Without these interactions, diversity initiatives remain symbolic.

Reaching Career Equity

Dr. Anna Kallschmidt’s research helps explain why so many minority parents stall in their careers despite strong performance. The issue is not motivation or talent. It is access to cultural knowledge that is treated as universal but distributed unevenly.

The situation is multi-faceted. While first-gen individuals aim to match social cues and self advocate for their skillsets; there should be a persistent effort to train employers on possible cultural biases.