Do women get BETTER at their jobs after they’ve had children?
A growing lobby argues having a baby makes women more focused, confident and determined workers...
SOME women credit years of hard work for their career success, others say it’s about taking risks or never taking ‘no’ for an answer. But clothes designer Rachel Riley, whose luxury childrenswear is worn by Prince George no less, roundly points to a factor that’s far closer to home and perhaps less expected — motherhood.
‘I feel very strongly that becoming a mother gives you self-belief, focus, concentration and the ability to be a brilliant multi-tasker,’ she explains. ‘It made me realise what I valued in life.
‘It wasn’t just in a financial sense, but I wanted to do something where I could be a good role model for my children.’
She adds: ‘Before I had children, time was more elastic. Although I was fairly business-minded, I didn’t have the same perspective. It was all about me, no one else. After I’d had children, I was so much better at compartmentalising my life. I knew I wanted to “have it all” — a family and a career.’
With her eponymous label, former model Rachel, 55 — who has two sons and a daughter now in their 20s — has showrooms in London, New York, Atlanta and Dallas and her clothing range has a long list of celebrity clients including David Beckham, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jamie Oliver and Beyonce, not to mention the royal family.
But until now her belief that motherhood boosts women’s productivity has been at odds with the prevailing wisdom. For decades, study after study concluded that having children is more likely to have
a detrimental effect on a woman’s career.
It’s certainly had an impact on women’s earnings. Earlier this year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that by the time a couple’s first child is aged 20, many mothers earn nearly a third less than fathers.
MOTHERS are more likely to be sidelined for promotion. The problem is so widespread that it’s even got a name — The Motherhood Penalty.
Yet new evidence is emerging to back up the designer’s thesis. It suggests that having children makes you a better employee and that the Motherhood Penalty is actually spectacularly unfair.
‘For years we’ve been told women are not as productive once they’ve had children because childcare and household responsibilities tend to fall on the woman — but actually, being a mother may make you more productive,’ says sociologist Dr Heejung Chung.
One recent study looked at 10,000 economists working in academia. ‘They looked at research papers published. It turned out that those economists who were mothers were more productive than those women without children.
‘Another recent study showed that taking care of children enhanced your capacity to be better managers — not only of your own time but with conflict in the workplace.
‘You only have to think about what it’s like dealing with toddlers to know that you have more flexibility with the way you think.
‘That transfers to dealing with personal issues in the workplace. Mothers are very aware of their time. I know from my own experience that before children, I worked all hours. But once I had the school pick-up looming and deadlines to meet, I became more focused and productive in the time I had.’
Certainly, having a baby no longer has to mean the end of a successful career and while there’s an assumption that women return to the workplace lacking confidence in their abilities, many say the opposite is true.
Television star Lucy Kennedy, who welcomed her third child in December 2016, is a case in point. She’s more in demand than ever, as presenter of two prime-time television shows, Living With Lucy and Ireland’s Got Talent, and is currently working on other media projects.
Model and entrepreneur Pippa O’Connor, and also one of Ireland’s most successful bloggers — credits her appeal to the fact that she’s a busy working mum of two.
And former Miss Ireland Pamela Flood, who had her third baby in December 2015, has since not only helped develop successful healthy food eatery Counter Culture with her husband, Ronan Ryan, but this year returned to TV screens after a ten year break with food series Healthy Appetite.
Even Serena Williams, currently seeded 25 at Wimbledon after having her daughter, says she believes motherhood has boosted her selfbelief. This, despite the fact that she left tennis last year ranked No1 in the world and returned in May, a mother, ranked 453rd.
Serena is one of a number of elite female athletes to return from maternity leave stronger, faster and — crucially — more determined.
Paula Radcliffe won the New York Marathon less than a year after having her first child. Belgian tennis player Kim Clijsters, another former World No1, won three of her four Grand Slam titles after having her first child.
A-list actresses Emilia Fox, Emily Blunt and Maggie Gyllenhaal have credited motherhood with making them better at their jobs. While anecdotal accounts from mothers indicate they are more organised after giving birth, there may well be a biological reason why they are more efficient than women without children.
Neuroscientists have discovered that a woman’s brain is changed for at least two years after giving birth. This ‘mummy brain’ phenomenon has always been thought to be damaging — a fogginess and forgetfulness that tired parents will know only too well. Yet there’s also a theory that new mothers are more focused where it matters.
In one study, 25 women who became mothers for the first time had an MRI scan. After completing their pregnancies, they were rescanned alongside women who had never given birth.
The new mothers showed a loss of grey matter in several brain areas associated with social cognition, a form of emotional intelligence.
WHILE this sounds alarming, researchers argue that it may actually be beneficial. ‘Loss of volume does not necessarily translate to loss of function,’ says Elseline Hoekzema, a senior brain scientist at Leiden University in the Netherlands adding, ‘sometimes less is more.’ She suggests that the loss of grey matter could ‘represent a fine-tuning of synapses into more efficient neural networks.’
Other studies on mothers’ brains show that they are less likely to show fear in the face of threat — perhaps making them bolder than their childless counterparts.
In one experiment a US psychologist noted that, when exposed to stress, mother rats were less likely to freeze and showed fewer switched-on neurons in the amygdala part of the brain (meaning they were displaying less fear) than childless participants.
Translated into an office environment, this suggests that mothers may be better able to deal with work-stress than non-mothers — perhaps thanks to a greater sense of what’s really important to them. One high-flying mother who believes this could be the case is Fiona McDonnell, European Director of Beer, Wine and Spirits at Amazon. ‘I’ve found that becoming a mum has helped me a great deal in my career, particularly as it has enabled me to gain a lot of perspective and focus on the important things, like saying “no” more and trusting your gut feeling to make quicker, better decisions.’ Fiona, 47, who lives with husband Riemer, a house husband and their two sons aged seven and four, adds: ‘The clarity that stems from having a little baby that depends on you is enlightening.
‘I was surprised how much stuff is suddenly not that important — and that skill stays with you. You quickly develop your own routine and this will help manage colleagues’ expectations of you in the process.
‘When I had my first child, I was the managing director of a Dutch manufacturing firm.
‘At that time, I was working late and wondered how I would ever be able to keep up with the intense demands of the job —especially as I’d decided to still feed the baby myself.
‘Logistically, the first few months were brutally organised to allow for both feeding and work, but it was important to me that I did this for my child.
‘I had no ex t e n d e d family nearby, but my husband and I became a real team — we found a way. What at first sounded impossible soon became routine, and I quickly found I dropped the things that didn’t matter, made different choices and became way more productive as a result.’
Fiona admits she is lucky to have the flexibility of a husband who stays at home with the children. ‘I couldn’t do this job and enjoy the kids as much as I do without his support.
‘It is tough being a full-time working mum, but I love what I do and I remind myself that it was a choice that we made as a family.’
She says she’s learned from her children, too. ‘There’s many a parent who has learnt a lot from negotiating with a three-yearold or from their child’s ability to simply say things as they are. When I first started at Amazon my kids would tell people:
Motherhood has made me more confident: I’ve applied for promotions while on maternity leave and I’ve worked my way up the career ladder
“Mummy works at the toy shop where the man brings everything to the door.” I love their accurate view of the world.
‘I take a lot of inspiration from the time I spend with my kids and use it at work.’
Helen Nelson is currently enjoying her third maternity leave in five years. The 35-year-old senior clinical scientist hopes to take several months off to spend time with her three daughters — sixmonth-old Kira, Kaiya, five, and Amane, two — at home.
Husband Anthony, 37, works full-time as a technician for a business consultancy and, as both parents juggle childcare with the help of nursery and family, Helen admits that the demands of a full-time job and young family can be tough.
Many mothers in her position might consider going part-time or even giving up work completely.
In fact, in Ireland, childcare costs and high taxes contribute to many women leaving their jobs when they have children.
Despite being top of the World Economic Forum gender gap report for educational attainment, when it comes to economic participation and opportunity, Ireland is 50th, due to lower female participation rates and lower average earnings for women.
Parenting website Mumsnet found that two-thirds of mothers felt less employable after having a child and three-quarters said it was harder to progress in their careers.
But Helen, who works in healthcare, feels very differently.
‘I’m definitely going back to work full-time and I’d like to apply for another promotion when I return,’ she says. ‘My professional life has obviously been interrupted by having children. But being a mother has only contributed in a positive way to my career.
‘I’ve applied for promotions while I’m pregnant or on maternity leave and I’ve worked my way up the career ladder.
‘I recently applied for and attained my chartered engineer status — the highest accolade in my industry.
‘Being a mum means I am more organised than I was pre-children. I’m better at time-management. My hours are 8.30am until 4.30pm, with an hour’s commute each way, but I use that time productively and I’m so much better at switching off when I’m at home.
‘I used to bring work home but now I leave it there so I can focus on my children, reading them a bedtime story or giving them a bath without dealing with emails or calls. Motherhood has made me more confident, too.
‘I remember after having my second daughter that it was quite a shock to the system having two young children under three. But if I could cope with that, I could cope with anything. When I returned to work I noticed that I stood up for myself more. I have to manage people older than myself and I’d find that intimidating if I wasn’t a mother. It’s definitely helped my career.’
HELEN credits her employer as one of the reasons why she is able to succeed at the job she loves.
Experts say employers have to think about offering more flexibility if they want women to stay in the workforce. ‘The pay gap is a productivity gap, representing the loss of women’s skills and expertise from the workforce,’ says Sam Smethers, who works with the Fawcett Society, a charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights.
‘Mothers experience a pay gap of 33 per cent after 12 years. This is largely due to the penalty of taking time out from the labour market and working part-time when they return.
‘By failing to offer flexibility at senior levels, and also failing to create good quality part-time work, employers are simply preventing some of the best candidates from applying or being promoted in those roles.
‘It’s a huge waste of talent and a labour market inefficiency.’
With the right support, mothers can — and do — go on to the top of the career ladder. Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of a major bank, returned to work only six weeks after having her daughter Amy, now 16.
She admits she found the sacrifice of working while her husband cared for their baby extremely tough, but surprisingly, her work improved.
‘I was hit by terrible post-natal depression. It was a difficult and complicated time, but I did eventually go back.
‘Being a working mother does not mean you do both jobs worse. Actually, it can make you a better all-rounder and do wonders for your confidence.’
It’s a message that any working mother who feels her career has been compromised by having children should take to heart.