Careers After Babies

None of my friends, colleagues or customers are in the same job as they were prior to having children. That might not come as a surprise to you, everyone moves companies, but most of these women aren’t even in the same field. They're certainly not doing what they want or earning what they used to.

Anecdotally I have always known that women were being forced out of their careers after having children but I never had the data evidence to prove it. So in the summer of 2022, we conducted research into what happens to women’s careers after they have children.

I suspected we would uncover some uncomfortable truths. And we did.

What we found out

The world of work simply isn’t cut out to cater to working mothers. The UK workforce is full of skilled women working their way up organisations. Then they have children and they are forced out. It’s resulting in a massive under-representation in leadership - just 4% of FTSE250 companies have a female CEO.

We found there to be a 32% drop off at managerial level - and a 44% increase at admin level. Women are leaving their well-paid careers and starting over and it’s taking them upwards of ten years to get back to their pre-children levels.

We heard harrowing stories from mums forced to work full-time from the office or part-time hours with a full-time workload. It showed that mothers are becoming mentally and physically ill trying to fit into an outdated model of work.

Interestingly 98% of our respondents wanted to work but the majority (85%) could not work full time and raise their children. Some women were forced to turn to freelancing (11%), which, whilst offering great flexibility, provides little security.

19% of women surveyed left the employed workforce after having a child, resulting in problems that we all discuss openly and pretend not to have the answers to: gender inequality in leadership, the 14.9% gender pay gap, a 10% missed opportunity of GDP growth . All directly attributable to these findings.

What needs to be done

Everything is stacked against the working mum and businesses are not doing enough to support them. The myth of role protection, redundancies under the guise of "re-structures", lack of training and development and the consistent minimising of skills forcing them into lesser roles is all forcing women from the workplace.

When you overlay eye-wateringly expensive childcare, full-time costs an estimated 44% of the average salary, it's a surprise any mothers are working at all.

What was most interesting in our findings was that of the 98% of mothers wanting to work, 52% wanted to work 4 days or more. This was true of women of all background, abilities, socio-economic statuses, industries and locations. Given studies around productivity and the positive findings of the recent 4-day week trial, it doesn’t seem like women are asking for too much.

But there’s more to it than that. Mothers need to be able to work less than 35 hours over 5 days. They need to not spend so much on childcare. They need to be respected after they have children in the same way that they were before. They need to keep their jobs. They need to be promoted. They need to be valued. They need some flexibility.

Technologically, economically and sociologically we are capable of making the changes we need to make work work for everyone, especially mums. The pandemic proved that it is possible. It drove businesses to implement remote working quickly and fully for the best part of two years. Yes, there were challenges, but they were all surmountable with effort and consideration.

When mums are working they are contributing to the economy. The gender pay gap will reduce. There is an improved chance of equality in leadership. Hard-earned skills remain in businesses. There is less pressure on the workforce meaning everyone is less stressed. Economically it is better for everyone.

Women make up 50% of the population and by the age of 45, 82% will be mothers. Can we really afford to continue to ignore them?

Businesses need to be better. That’s why we’re launching the Careers After Babies accreditation. We’re partnering with some of the best employers in the world to create a set of standards for employers of working parents to aspire to. And we’ll provide them with the tools and resources they need to get there!

We believe there is a much better way to be a good employer for working parents. And we’re here to make that happen.

Jess Heagren is an ex-Financial Services Director, mother of four, award-winning CEO of That Works For Me, and author of landmark report Careers After Babies. On a personal mission to keep more parents in the workplace, Jess works with businesses to make them better employers for parents through the Careers After Babies accreditation programme and supports hiring through That Works For Me, home to thousands of parents seeking flexible work.