The Motherhood Penalty: How to stop motherhood being the kiss of death for your career

‘But you don’t know that changes to legislation would mean women make different choices; they have free will, and the women I know who have left their career to look after their children are very happy with…

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‘Well, I’m afraid that if you’re going to make those choices then unfortunately you are going to live with the consequences. How can women make it to the top when they work less than men? This isn’t about the patriarchy, or whatever it…

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‘Let me give you some examples. In the UK, 54,000 women a year are pushed out of their jobs due to pregnancy or for taking maternity leave, and 77 per cent of working mums face discrimination – that’…

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Brilliant, skilled, hard-working women are being pushed out and pushed to the edge by a system that ignores their needs and by employers who undermine their abilities. The rising cost of living, and a benefit system that doesn’t consider caregiving to have worth, forces women into poverty for doing the most important job there is – raising the next

Thousands of mothers are being forced out of their jobs, and hundreds of thousands more face other types of injustice such as demotions, halted careers or an impossible workload.

‘Choice is a mythical unicorn to mothers. Instead a mother must make decisions within a very constrained framework, choosing between the only possible option for financial…

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Same-sex couples have a much more equitable share of the unpaid labour… until they become parents,8 which shows that gender stereotypes are only part of the problem.

‘A mother’s choices are limited by extortionately priced, inflexible, inaccessible childcare. A mother’s choices are limited by maternity pay that is well below the national living wage. A mother’s choices are limited by the rising cost of living, which means most families need two incomes to cover their basic costs.1 A mother’s choices are limited

‘In the UK, parental-leave legislation favours mothers taking time out to care for children over fathers. In fact, thousands of working dads have no access to any paid paternity leave whatsoever. This means that, in nearly every family, the mother is the main carer,…

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