Two fifth of working mothers in the U.K. have turned down a promotion as a result of childcare pressures, and some 85% say that they have struggled to find a job that is able to accommodate their childcare needs, according to new research.
The study conducted by The Fawcett Society, which is the U.K.’s leading membership charity for gender equality and women’s rights, in collaboration with recruitment group Totaljobs, also found that one in ten working mothers had quit a job as a direct result of childcare pressures.
Working mothers, it found, are 1.4 times more likely to feel the financial burden of childcare costs than working fathers, and just under a third—31%—of working mothers have access to the flexible working arrangements they need in order to accommodate childcare.
“Too often, outdated prejudices and assumptions mean that women face unnecessary and harmful attitudes that hold them back. This results in many women stuck in roles that are below their capabilities,” said Jemima Olchawski, chief executive of the Fawcett Society.
For companies that are not managing to retain the right people, the “opportunity to develop promising careers that should never have stalled in the first place is an obvious step towards solving these issues,” Olchawski added.
She said that it’s particularly important for employers to support women who have been out of the paid labor market for the longest, as well as mothers who are in low paid work and who are single parents.
“It isn’t good enough to have supportive policies on paper,” Olchawski added. “Businesses need to make those a reality in the workplace and create genuinely family-friendly cultures.”
In some respects the U.K. has been more proactive on tackling gender inequality in the workplace than many other nations. In 2017, it introduced a gender pay gap reporting mandate, requiring all companies with 250 or more employees to publish annual data, my pay quartile, on their gender pay gap. The country also offers more statutory paid maternity leave than other nations, including the U.S, which offers no federal compensation guarantees for maternity leave.
But in other respects, policies in the U.K. have stopped short of offering employees returning from parental leave—and particularly mothers—the support they need in order to reach their full economic potential.
“Businesses can only go so far without a government policy change,” said Jane Lorigan, chief executive of Totaljobs. “Tracking the progress of working mothers when they return from maternity leave will help highlight any shortcomings from the business side. Creating a clear policy framework will let everyone know where they stand. And clearly signposting the support available will ensure no working mother misses out on the support she is entitled to.
Previous research by The Fawcett Society has shown that, on average, mothers with two children earn as much as a quarter less than women without children. Fathers, on the other hand, tend to see their earnings rise. And this inequality worsens over time, with a 10% difference in hourly pay between mothers and fathers at birth, rising to nearly 30% by the time a child is twenty years old.
The Fawcett Society and Totaljobs’ most recent research was based on surveys of over 4,000 UK working parents and other adults in employment as well as focus groups.
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