Mothers ‘less likely to progress after childbirth’
WOMEN are less likely to progress at work following the birth of a child compared to men, according to a study.
Researchers followed how childbirth affected employment and career progression in more than 3,500 new parents.
They found only 27.8% of women were in full-time or self-employed work three years after childbirth, compared to 90% of new fathers.
While 26% of men were promoted or moved to a better job in the five years after their baby was born, the figure was 13% for women.
The researchers, from the universities of Bristol and Essex, say their findings, in a report for the Government Equalities Office, suggest that women suffer economically and become stuck at work following childbirth, while there is no impact on fathers.
Helen Antoniazzi, Strategic Lead for Policy and Communications at Chwarae Teg, the Welsh charity which works to improve gender equality in the economy, said: “The findings from this study are reflected in gender pay gap figures which increase as women get older, resulting in what is often referred to as a ‘motherhood pay penalty’.
“It’s very clear from these statistics that out-dated working practice alongside caring responsibilities have a big impact on women.
“Childcare provision continues to act as a key barrier to women returning to and progressing in the workplace.
“While additional investment in childcare from the Welsh Government is welcome, the impact of the new Childcare Offer will need to be closely monitored to ensure it is effectively supporting parents to balance work and care.
“Many traditional working practices also create unnecessary barriers for people with caring responsibilities because they focus on where people work and how much time they spend in the workplace, rather than the actual work they are doing and how productive they are.
“More modern working practices give a greater priority to productivity and outcomes.
“Chwarae Teg works with employers across Wales, through our Agile Nation 2 programme and FairPlay Employer service, to support them to adopt more modern working practices. These can include agile and remote working, results-based working and job sharing.
“The businesses we work with find that through adopting modern working practices they are able to improve equality and diversity while also becoming more productive and seeing improvements in staff retention and progression.”
In the study, data from Understanding Society was used to follow 2,281 mothers and 1,687 fathers for three or five years after their baby was born.
It found that mothers increasingly withdraw from employment over time, with the more children a woman has reducing the likelihood that she will work full-time.
Professor Susan Harkness, from the School of Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, said: “The results of our study highlight how gendered employment patterns are following childbirth, with men typically remaining in full-time work and women leaving full-time work.
“This loss in work experience, and in particular full-time work experience, is an important part of the explanation for the gender pay gap and suggests women still suffer economically as a result of taking on childcare responsibilities.
“Worryingly, it appears that women who return to employment typically see their chance of moving up the occupational ladder decrease.
“Women who return to the same employer risk becoming stuck in their job roles with limited career progression.”
Of the women in the study, 43% were first-time mothers.
Less than one in five of all mothers returned to full-time work in the first three years after maternity leave. This fell to 15% after five years.
The study found 17% of women left employment completely in the five years following childbirth, compared to 4% of men.
In the year before birth, the man was the main earner in 54% of couples but this increased to 69% three years after birth.
In couples where the woman earned the most prior to birth, just 46% remained the main earner three years later.
Dr Alina Pelikh, from the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, said: “While we’ve only looked at the first five years following a child being born, all these factors suggest that the patterns we’ve observed are unlikely to be reversed as children grow older.
“We still need to better understand the reasons why many women do not return to full-time work and encourage policies that enable women reconcile work and family life.”