House of Commons - Women in Workplace - Business, Innovation and Skills Committee

Women in Workplace - Business, Innovation and Skills Committee Contents

5 Maternity leave and Childcare

I feel like we are in a permanent state of pregnancy at this hearing. [Heather Rabbatts, Non-Executive Director, Football Association][157]

103. The quote from Heather Rabbatts highlighting the fact that there is a tendency to reduce the issue of women in the workplace to a discussion of pregnancy and childcare. Maternity leave and childcare were not specifically mentioned in our terms of reference, yet we received so much evidence on these issues, including very personal testimonials on the Mumsnet forum and from Woman's Hour listeners, that we decided to include a chapter on these issues.

104. The following extracts are illustrative of the over 100 contributions to the Mumsnet forum:

Discrimination against mothers, either in the workplace or when applying for jobs. Many women find that what seemed like woman-friendly workplaces when they were childless suddenly seem to become hostile once they have children. I have lost count of the number of brilliant, dedicated women I know whose careers have stalled at 40 despite the same thing not happening to their husbands.[158]

give us a break financially with childcare, we come out with less than people on benefits.[159]

I think the problem with most of these issues is that they are imposed unequally in the first place. If parental leave following birth was equally proportioned then career progression, issues relating to returning to work and the gender pay gap would not be such a 'women's issue'.[160]

The cost of childcare. It should be completely tax-deductible and then the voucher scheme can be scrapped, as can the childcare element of tax credits.
I also think that work needs to be done to encourage employers to allow fathers to work more flexibly too, so that they can share the burden of drop offs, pickups, taking time off to care for sick children and so on.[161]

Issues faced by women wishing to return to work following childbirth.
This is the most pertinent for me, I was made redundant whilst on Mat leave. It is nigh on impossible to get a part time job that fits in with childcare hours if you haven't previously been in the role as a full time member of staff. I wanted to be at home as much as possible for my two, and number two took a long time coming. So now I have a 7 year gap on my C.V. and despite years of experience and degrees in my field I am virtually unemployable at anything less than minimum wage. So basically my degree....and the debt I incurred to get it, and missing out on the housing ladder due to paying back that debt, were all for nothing. I have stated my own business in desperation, but it's very hit and miss. I'd like to see some form of job share or part time provision made for mothers, so that we don't HAVE to put our kids in childcare for 10 hours a day just so we can get back to working[162].

Biggest issue = the practical support of British Men. Responsibility for the everyday practicalities of family life is generally seen/practised as women's role. Bearing cost of childcare is generally seen as responsibility of women's salaries. I could not sustain my career because it effectively required me to have an unpaid 'wife' in support. More women can work more if more men take on more of the 'wife' role. Stop pretending that there isn't work in bringing up a family—instead, get men to take up some of that work.[163]

105. The written and oral evidence we received also referred to discrimination—direct and indirect—against women either during pregnancy or when on maternity leave. Maternity Action wrote that "in 2005, an estimated 30,000 women each year lost their jobs as a result of pregnancy discrimination".[164] It stated that:

Of those women who lost their jobs as a result of pregnancy discrimination, 8% pursued formal action and only 3% took their claims to the employment tribunal. Women face significant barriers to exercising their rights including: competing demands of motherhood, access to advice services, employment tribunal fees, the abolition of questionnaire procedures and negative attitudes towards maternity rights.[165]

Working Families argued that the current economic climate has led to an increase in cases:

During the recession we have seen a rise in the number of calls about discrimination, particularly affecting pregnant women and those on maternity leave. In 2011, 8% of our calls concerned maternity discrimination. Callers on maternity leave reported being demoted on their return to work, not being offered their old jobs back, being made redundant or even dismissed because of pregnancy.[166]

106. We also heard evidence that highlighted the burden of certain maternity rights on employers. Anya Hindmarch, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Anya Hindmarch Ltd, expressed her views on employment laws:

Maternity laws are tricky. I think unfair dismissal is tricky, although that is not about women. There is a whole raft of things that I think are really suffocating. They almost end up forcing you to behave in an inhumane way. [...] I think it could end up working against women unfortunately. As a woman, a mother of five and an employer of a lot of women with children, I think it would end up making you make a choice between employing a man or a woman. You probably might pick the easier route because the regulation and the consequential cost and eggshell-treading would just be too onerous.[167]

Conversely, Marie O'Riordan told us about her experiences as editor of Marie Claire magazine:

Because the majority of my team were women, you anticipated the nightmare. Every time someone announced they were pregnant, you went into a maelstrom of panic about how you would manage that situation. Obviously, you had to work within the economics of the budget. However, it never was as bad as you thought it was going to be, and there was rarely more than two of three women pregnant at the same time. I think the idea of managing it is probably far more terrifying than the reality of it.[168]

Parental leave proposals

107. Renee Santosa, writing in a personal capacity, stated that "time is the biggest gift we can give our children. Both parents need to be able to make time".[169] The Government has recently made a significant step towards alleviating this problem by introducing flexible parental leave proposals in the Children and Families Bill:

Introducing flexible parental leave is key to the Government's commitment to become the most family friendly Government in the world. Our approach will enable working fathers to take a more active role in caring for their children and working parents to share the care of their children. It is also a crucial step towards reducing the gender bias that currently applies to women's careers.[170]

108. Catherine Hakim saw this as an important reform, which moved the debate forward from being principally a women's issue to a shared parental issue:

I think the move towards making maternity leave/parental leave gender neutral is absolutely the right way to go. I have always argued for gender-neutral policies because they otherwise stigmatise women. It is because women have had a right to maternity leave that employers have been less willing to hire young women of the age when they might have children.[171]

Some witnesses highlighted the way in which certain aspects of employment legislation can adversely affect SMEs in particular, due to the small number of staff employed in such businesses. Claire Martinsen, founder of Breckland Orchard, told us about her fruit juice business, and the heavy lifting involved:

If I had someone who was going on maternity leave who worked for me, and if I had to do a health and safety assessment and they could not be lifting that amount of weight, I literally would not have anywhere to put that person in my business. I have no other job.[172]

109. We welcome the reforms to maternity leave, which are part of the Children and Families Bill, including the right to shared parental leave, and statutory shared parental pay. This should lead to parental leave becoming a more gender-neutral matter. However, we appreciate the fact that for some small businesses, parental rights are not without occasional, but potentially significant risk to those businesses.

110. We recommend that the Government collects data on pregnancy discrimination, in order to monitor its incidence, from the position of both employees and employers. This should be done in conjunction with our previous recommendation that women with pregnancy discrimination cases should not have to pay the proposed £1,200 tribunal fee.

157 Q 257 Back

158 TurnipTheVegedude, http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/a1633298-Parliamentary-committee-wants-your-views-on-issues-faced-by-working-women Back

159 Ibid,wheredoistartmrs Back

160 Ibid, Anchorwoman Back

161 Ibid,Alibabaandthe40nappies Back

162 Ibid, CanonFodder Back

163 Ibid, Brawhen Back

164 Ev w64 Back

165 Ibid. Back

166 Ev 253 Back

167 Q 242 Back

168 Q 251 Back