When I had my first baby I worked in an agency where there were no other mums. I thought that I’d take a year off, because that’s what my friends had done, plus I had a good maternity package that allowed me to.
Some 20 weeks in and I was itching to get back to work. Maternity leave was not the glowy, gentle embrace I had expected. I was extremely unprepared for how hard and how lonely staying at home with a baby was going to feel. Much to the dismay of my NCT class, I went back after six months. I was knackered, but at least I felt I got some of my identity back.
That was almost ten years ago and the drive then was making sure women could have as much time off as they needed. An important movement, but sadly one which has not improved the gender pay gap nor the number of women who manage to sustain their careers.
New mothers in the UK take an average of 39 weeks of maternity leave according to research from Maternity Action, 45 per cent take longer but today more women than ever are not returning to work once that is up. Meanwhile, ONS figures show that the number of women returning to work has reached a 30-year low and is down 5 per cent from last year.
The problem that women face is that the government’s position on maternity leave is totally out of step with its childcare support. So while women are legally allowed to take 12 months off work, the most substantial childcare support for working families (15 of 30 hours free childcare) doesn’t start until your child is three. So the expectation is for you to return to work after receiving statutory maternity pay (£157/week) for six months and then start paying 65 per cent of your wage on childcare. The maths is horrible.
Even if women do return, evidence from a variety of countries suggests that women who take longer maternity leaves often report it taking longer to be promoted, move into management, or receive a pay raise once their leave is over.
The problem with long maternity leaves is that you find yourself financially, psychologically and logistically on the back foot when you start to think about your return to work. By default you have also become the person in your relationship who is fully responsible for the huge job of managing a child.
Is shared parental leave the answer?
But there is a new movement which shows signs that we could reverse some of these trends. Rather than give women more time, the focus is shifting onto dads. It is startling in a way that this has taken so long.
Shared parental leave was introduced as government policy in 2015, but in the first year take-up had not reached 1 per cent. The complicated way SPL is structured is partly to blame, but crucially it underestimated the enormous cultural shift that was required.
Gen Z, though, aren’t as afraid to demand cultural shifts - even if they aren’t parents yet. Vodafone released data last year saying one-in-five younger workers in the UK have quit their job due to poor parental leave support and a recent study by Koru Kids revealed that half of parents are dissatisfied with the parental leave offered to dads.
Businesses like Aviva, Zurich and Mars are leading the way and just last week University Arts London (UAL) announced that it was moving to a policy of 26 weeks fully-paid parental leave for men and women.
Polly Mackenzie, chief social purpose officer at UAL, said: “At the heart of UAL’s social purpose strategy is a commitment to pioneer changes that can help solve society’s problems. We hope this move will inspire other organisations to introduce equal parental leave and contribute to a country in which gender no longer determines your earning potential.”
This type of policy may feel unmanageable for some businesses, but benefits and policies such as this are fast becoming critical to keeping hold of talent. Investing in anything that boosts equality will deliver long-term ROI.
Three things to consider when it comes to taking parental leave
Parental leave is so different for all of us and there are many factors that will influence your decision. If you are lucky enough to have options then there are a few things that everyone should take into account.
Firstly, women do need time to recover from the almighty trauma of giving birth - it’s a legal requirement to take at least two weeks of maternity leave (four weeks if you work in a factory). When you become a mother you go through an enormous transition (physically, emotionally, psychologically - it’s scientifically proven that your brain’s architecture will change) and it is different for dads. Women need to give themselves time to manage their recovery as well as the rather enormous task of learning how to look after a creature who is entirely dependent on you.
Secondly, it is weird and wrong that most dads can only take two weeks of leave. This means from day one parenting is never equal and often never regains true balance (we’ll talk about the mental load another day…).
But finally, let’s be honest about the significant consequences of taking long maternity leaves. Women especially need to think carefully about how we plan to return to work - particularly when it comes to the enormous financial burden of childcare costs.
It is exciting we are seeing some innovation and progress in the movement towards equal parental leave. But only in conjunction with better childcare support will we start to be able to reverse the depressing trends in gender equality at work.
