Are stay-at-home mothers being forced back to work?
3,500 women start jobs every week... but many are menial or part-time
ALMOST 3,500 women have entered the jobs market every week in a ‘quiet revolution’ since the Coalition came to power, figures reveal today.
Three quarters of a million additional women have found work since 2010 – pushing the total to a record 14.4 million.
Ministers said women have succeeded in finding jobs in male-dominated industries such as construction and science. About 80 per cent of new posts were in managerial, professional and technical jobs.
But critics said they fear the increase shows many mothers are being forced back to work, as single-income families facing poor wage growth struggle to make ends meet.
While the number of women in full-time work rose by 230,000 this year, part-time work also rose by 140,000, the Office for National Statistics data showed, which is thought to be driven by women with young families look- ing for flexible hours or those in their 50s and 60s returning after a career break.
Last night, one pressure group accused the Government of undervaluing full-time parents and focusing on getting as many women back to work as they can, even where it means taking low-paid work that scarcely covers childcare costs.
Lynne Burnham, from Mothers At Home Matter, said: ‘I think if we look behind these figures we will find a lot of women working part-time hours in their evenings or in menial jobs. A lot of them may have wanted to stay at home with their children, but they cannot afford to and the Government does not incentivise them to do so.
‘The role of the mother or father who stays at home to look after their children has been so undervalued by this Government. Just because you are not in employment does not mean you are not working.
‘Looking after children or an elderly relative is working, but politicians do not recognise this, they just want more women in work.’
Siobhan Freegard, co- founder of the parenting website Netmums, said: ‘It is not
‘Taking low-paid jobs to pay their bills’
just women entering fulfilling careers in the boardroom or careers in law and science, it is also about mothers being forced to take lowpaid jobs in supermarkets to pay their bills.’
Ministers claim they have taken steps to support stay-at-home mothers in recent years, and last week, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith announced the Government would strengthen its support for families, and in particular marriage, by passing all new policies through a ‘family test’.
From April, married couples will be able to transfer £1,000 of any unused income tax personal allowance to their spouse – which will be worth a maximum of £200.
But from next September, couples who both work will receive tax-free childcare vouchers of up to £2,000 a year per child.
Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Nicky Morgan said they had made it ‘easier for women to balance work and families’ by giving employees the right to request flexible working and introducing shared parental leave from 2015.
Employment Minister Esther McVey said: ‘The women of the UK have been staging a quiet revolution. Women are in work in unprecedented numbers, and recent growth has been overwhelmingly into the top professions.’