Help for mums in jobs

PARENTS trying to navigate the world of work and child rearing will be given a hand from today with an online resource aimed at helping 50,000 women back into work over the next three years.

Former corporate executives Jodie Geddes and Kate Pollard are launching Circle In an online resource to help parents navigate careers and motherhood.

Sick of mummy blogs talking about the mundanity of motherhood and nothing substantial to support and engage women who want to navigate parenting with career, they quit their jobs to take matters into their hands.

Their aim is to reach 50,000 women over the three years and help them to build confidence and have the tools and tips to navigate their careers through the juggle of children.

Their site will include real advice from senior women, interviews, checklists on how to navigate maternity leave, what to ask for when looking for a nanny or au pair, podcasts, videos and a range of other useful resources will all be available for free.

Ms Geddes and Ms Pollard each have two young children and have had successful careers. But it has not been easy.

“What I learned through my two lots of maternity leave is you can’t rely on your man- ager or organisation. Women need to take control of the process and we want to give them back that control,” said Ms Geddes, mum to Eloise, 2, and Molly, 4.

“There is real inconsistency in the way parental leave is managed across different organisations and even within the same organisation. If women have all the resources they need to take back the control, we’ll get more women back into work, which will be a huge positive for our economy.”

Ms Pollard, mum to Oliver, 4, and Finn, 2, said women would be able to ask any question via the Circle In website to seek mentorship from other women.

“When you are a new parent or a new mum there are loads of mummy blogs and parenting websites to help you learn how to settle your child or deal with other issues but there is very little out there on how to manage your career through that parenting process,” she said.

According to OECD figures Australia’s maternal workforce has stagnated about 64 per cent since 2008. Maternal employment participation rates are 20 percentage points higher in Sweden and 4.2 percentage points higher in the UK.

Ms Geddes and Ms Pollard hope to also launch corporate training sessions to support more mothers back into work.