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

‘Women choose to take time out of work to care for their children, or they choose to work fewer hours after they’ve had their kids because…

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2020 was the year we finally realised that the needs of pregnant women and mothers are often sidelined and ignored with sometimes disastrous consequences for families.

‘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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‘Well, it’s the usual suspects: Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden. The countries where childcare is properly subsidised, where ring-fenced, properly paid paternity leave means dads are far more likely to take time out to care for their children, and flexible working is the norm for all employees. In these countries, mothers report far higher levels

‘If you look at other countries, which have very different legislative frameworks, women in those…

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Problems are messy and complicated: you can’t give a full answer as to why women have unequal access to the labour market in 90 seconds. It…

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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

‘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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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.