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Michelle Edwards

The Motherhood Penalty

What is the motherhood penalty? It is a term coined by sociologists to describe the disadvantages faced by mothers in the workplace.


What disadvantages?

  • Wage disparity

  • Being hired and keeping a job

  • Decreased career opportunities-

  • Having to explain career breaks

  • Being perceived as being less committed to their careers

  • Unfair distribution of household labour and caring responsibilities





Wages and the gender pay gap

According to recent studies, it will take at least 50 years for OECD countries (including the UK) to reach gender pay equality. That means an 18-year-old woman now entering the workforce will not experience equal pay in her working life. The gender pay gap has actually widened in recent years despite a spotlight on the issue and pressure to improve diversity in the workplace. The motherhood penalty contributes significantly to the pay gap when we look at the difference between mothers and their male coworkers. There is also a disparity between mothers and childless females although both earn less than men.


Being hired and keeping a job

The Fawcett Society reported last year that more than 250,000 women felt forced from their jobs after becoming mothers. I almost had to leave a freelance role that I fought hard to get over a simple reasonable adjustment. It was expected that I take trains to the various locations I was delivering. Trains where I live are not regular and it would have added a significant amount of time to my working day, and therefore childcare costs/arrangements. I wanted to drive to work but this simple request was questioned and rebutted to the point that I almost walked away. Thankfully, a change in staffing at the office solved this. The new person in the role saw it as a non issue and I was able to drive and be compensated for mileage without any further discussion. I have worked regularly for this company since 2018 but would have left after my training period had I not been supported with travel arrangements.


Decreased Career Opportunities

I watched a recent interview about parenting and the topic was raising children when you both have ‘big jobs’. That isn’t necessarily linked to pay. It describes a job that is time intensive and demanding, particularly if it requires time away from home. The thinking behind it was that you can’t have two parents with big jobs or the children will suffer and the parents will miss out on parenting. I have heard people question why some people have children when they don’t spend any time with them, this question is always directed at mothers and not at fathers. More often than not it is the mother who steps back from these big jobs to take up the caring responsibilities and when she is ready to lean back in, the opportunities are no longer there.


Explaining Career Breaks…. again

As a freelancer the gaps in my CV mean that potential employers will made assumptions. A mum of a single child who wants and is financially able to stay at home until that child starts childcare, nursery or school and therefore has one break is easily explainable. However, those who have more than one child or who have accepted jobs that fitted in around early years caring rather than those that were furthering her career may find it more difficult to navigate the assumptions and presumptions that are made. The roles you are happy to accept with a one year old and a three year old are not the same that you may be looking for when those children are 6 and 8 years old or 11 and 13. This is also true in wider society. Stepping off the treadmill to travel, or deal with grief, or health, or caring responsibilities, or simply for a change shouldn’t mean that the treadmill disappears! Oftentimes people return to their careers after these breaks better at their jobs than they were before.


Less committed to careers

Mothers are routinely judged to be less competent, more emotional, less professional and less committed to their careers than childless females. Incredibly fathers are perceived to be more competent and more committed than childless men! So becoming a parent is actually beneficial to men and detrimental to women.


Household labour

Schools will almost always contact the mother if a child is sick at school. This is improving as schools ask for an order of emergency contacts but presumptions exist. Most working mothers have had this discussion at some point with their partners when faced with a missed day at work due to a sick child. These discussions have often become heated whether the parents are still together or not. The bias is clear and often unquestioned. In addition 92% of mothers report doing at least an hour of housework every day whereas less than 30% of fathers report the same.


What can be done?

  • Better affordable childcare

  • Less presumptions and assumptions

  • Listening to women about what they need, what they want and are willing to do and then understanding that will change as they progress through motherhood.

  • Questioning bias and beliefs about mothers at work


Much of this bias around motherhood and work is unconscious, people have inherited beliefs that they haven’t interrogated or questioned.


It is important to address and, where necessary, actively challenge this in the workplace if we truly want to be inclusive and enable a diverse team where everyone is able to work to their potential. It’s important to keep the conversation open as I believe that this is an individual, case by case, family by family situation. In addition to that it is continually moving and evolving as each person moves through motherhood and their career. Assumptions and presumptions contribute hugely to the motherhood penalty. Ask mums what they need and keep asking them.


I really believe that I am better at my job(s) since becoming a mother. I procrastinate less, am more efficient, really enjoy my time at work, am more confident and secure in who I am, and am proud to provide for my family.

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