TRICIA PHILLIPS

Women feel they are still being held back in their careers by motherhood.

Half of new mums felt they had been overlooked for promotions and special projects after returning to work. While four in 10 worry about the impact starting a family may have on their career.

These are depressing findings of a report from PwC to mark International Women’s Day today.

Women are confident, ambitious and ready for what’s next, but they don’t trust what employers tell them about career development and promotion.

The report says three things need to change:

1. Transparency and trust – women need to know where they stand. Greater transparency means a more inclusive environment giving both women and men greater opportunities to fulfil their potential.

2. Strategic support – women need proactive networks of leaders and peers – men and women who will develop, promote and champion them.

3. Life, family care and work – employers need to rethink their approach to helping balance work, life, parenthood and family care to prevent biases. Bosses must recognise that everyone is making flexibility demands – it’s not a life stage or gender-only issue – and help and encourage all employees to take advantage of programmes in place.

Laura Hinton, UK head of people at PwC, said: “Flexibility can be a powerful tool for helping people to achieve career goals and should be encouraged for all employees.”

The gender pay gap means today is the day women start getting paid as they have in effect been working for free so far this year, says TUC research on the 18% pay gap.