The Motherhood Penalty

Like many people in the VFX industry I am a parent. In my case, I am a mother to three children under 10, and I have had my children whilst working in the industry. In the UK, 82% of women will be mothers by the time they’re 40. That equates to 43% of the nation’s workforce.

But despite having such a significant representation within the professional world, there is an increase in the number of women leaving their roles after having children. In research conducted by That Works for Me , an organisation with the aim of keeping women in the workplace, 848 mothers shared their experience of working after having children.? The report shows that less than a quarter (24%) of women go back to full-time after having children, and of that 24%, 79% ended up leaving anyway due to not being able to maintain a full-time role alongside having a baby. The reasons cited for this are a lack of flexibility by employers to accommodate the needs of working parents, discrimination in the workplace against mothers, the rising cost of childcare and the lack of available childcare, and the societal and professional expectation that the majority share of the childcare falling to women.

This exodus of women leaving industry is contributing to a lack of women in leadership roles, and drives the gender pay gap within industries.?

In the November 2021 report ‘Invisible is Visual Effects: Understanding the Prevalence and Experiences of Women in the Field’ published by WIA Women in Animation, and USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, the report found that in qualitative interviews, work/ family balance was the primary quoted reason for the lack of women in leadership roles. When asked specifically about whether the difficulty of balancing work and family plays a role 86.6% of all respondents answered that it was a factor they experienced directly or that impacted women generally.

According to the PWC 2023 report 'Women in the Workplace' ‘The UK in particular, has some of the highest childcare costs across the OECD, with full-time childcare for two children on average costing almost 30% of average wages.’ This in turn means that ‘as the cost of living rises, the expenditure of childcare will be felt more acutely. With this and the gap in free childcare between ages one and three more women will be priced out of the workplace’

Data from 16 countries found on average women spend 31 unpaid hours every week caring for children in 2020, eight hours more than the average man. This ‘second shift’ is almost as much as an extra full time job.’ This means that women are more likely to request flexible working over men and are more likely to feel the weight of managing the professional role against their parenting role.

This leads to the ‘motherhood penalty’: the loss in lifetime earnings experienced by women raising children, brought about by underemployment and slower career progression upon returning to work after having a child. This is observed directly as a 60% drop in earnings for mothers compared to fathers in the 10 years after the birth of their first child and is the most significant driver for the gender pay gap. In 2021 the OECD found the motherhood penalty accounted for 60% of the gender pay gap across 25 European countries, with factors such as social norms, gender stereotyping and discrimination making up the remaining 40%.

The motherhood penalty is having a significant impact on women’s ability overall to progress within their businesses and into leadership roles. Whilst lots of organisations are looking at grass roots initiatives to bring more women into industry and to progress them into leadership positions through training and mentoring, not enough is being done to support women who are child rearing to prevent this significant drop off.

So what can be done? There is no denying that the challenge is complex and multi-layered and that change needs to happen at government policy level as well as there being an overall change in societal perceptions of childcare and gender roles.?

The flexible working bill supported by Mother Pukka means that the laws have changed to flexible working requests, and there are positive changes being implemented and extended in terms of free childcare hours .?

However there are efforts that parents, line managers and organisations can make to support change and the retention of mothers within their organisations.

What can mothers and parents do to protect and support themselves?

·? Know your rights and keep up to date with changes in employment law, in the UK Gov.uk has information on the changes that are happening to free childcare and flexible working. Pregnant then Screwed is also a great source of information around the challenges and rights of mothers and parents in the workplace and how you can support change.

·? Understand your childcare options in terms of what is available and affordable for you and how this childcare will work in practice. Note this will change at each point in your child’s life and being informed of what is coming up for you and how this will work with your professional life allows you to prepare for the inevitable challenge you will face in navigating this.??

·? Change starts at home in hetero cisgender relationships women are still holding the cognitive labour for childcare and household tasks. If you are in a dual parent household whilst you wait for systems and policy to change, it is important to recognise that we have built societies on the back of unpaid labour for women and that we need to make this change at home too. In Eve Rodsky’s book 'Fair Play' she looks at the ‘Ownership Mindset’ recognising the thousands of tasks that make up parenting and running a household. It challenges the rethinking and the division of labour between couples that will allow women to show their true value to the world.

·? Be real with yourself and recognise that being a working parent changes the way in which you want and are able to work. Kathleen Hogan the CPO at Microsoft talks about ‘Investing and Harvesting’ in your career, there are times when ‘we’re able to go hard at our jobs’ but there are also times ‘’when we need to take our foot off the gas to focus more on ourselves, a family member.’’ take that long term view and recognise that “work will fill the capacity we give it”.Thinking about this in the context of being a working parent is important and knowing that your career spans decades. There will be periods for example, when your children are young when you will not be able to work at the same pace as you did prior to children, but it will come back around if you want it to.

· ? Parent loudly in Lorna Bornstein’s book ‘It’s Personal – The Business Case for Caring’ she talks about the importance of parenting loudly, “not being ashamed of having children to take care of, and in fact being proud of the ways in which being a parent makes you better at your job”. Parenting loudly means you become a role model for parents within your organisation: creating shared experiences, normalising the working parent experience and supporting change. This is particularly important not only for mothers but for fathers in the workplace.

·? Set boundaries with your organisation and yourself.? If you work part time or flexibly make sure you apply discipline to your time? – if it helps to think less about yourself and more about the role model behaviours for future mothers and parents within the industry.

·? Be kind to yourself navigating a return to work and being a working parent is hard - there is no denying that. Don’t underestimate that your children will benefit from your role modelling and having a career if you can. Let go of any guilt – whilst your role as a parent is the most important one – remember that you deserve to realise your potential too.

·? Find mother lovers not haters seek out companies with policies that support working parents and ask for examples of parents who are making it work. If you are at an organisation that is not allowing you to realise your potential as a working parent, look to change that.

·? Ask for help and communicate with your colleagues, line manager and the HR team within your organisation about the challenges you are facing. Explore whether there is an opportunity to look at short term or long term support to better allow you to be successful in your role. Seek out communities of working parents in your organisation who might be able to provide you with support, and if they don’t exist create them. Remember that your experience is very likely a shared one, and having a good support network in place of people facing similar challenges will be beneficial to navigating life as a working parent.

What can managers do?

·? Listen, listen and listen and understand that not everyone’s experience of being a working mother is the same. The support or recognition they are seeking is going to be different. Having robust policies in place to support working parents is key, but understanding the individual needs of your team will help with happiness and retention.

·? Facilitate and practice boundaries when it comes to flexible working. Remember: your behaviour is the benchmark for others in the team – even if you are not a working parent making sure that you encourage healthy behaviour in your working hours and practice will encourage others to do so.

·? Celebrate and hero your working parents, women leaving the workplace to have a child or men leaving the workplace on shared parental leave should feel confident and supported by their manager. Any discussion around return to work should feel positive – career progression plans within the context of their flexible working should be communicated clearly, and working parents should be aware that flexible working will not inhibit them in terms of promotion

·? Create a supportive culture from acceptance of parental leave requests, to the language that people use in the workplace. Phrases such as ‘baby breaks’, ‘leaving early’ or ‘part-timers’ should be banned from the workplace. Bear in mind that when parents are not in the office, they are doing another job. One that is equally, if not more demanding.?

What can companies do?

·? Start with the data ?before introducing support programs, look at what is happening in your organisation and where the pain points are. Daisy Dowling executive coach and founder of Work Parent , talks about focusing on where the drop offs are rather than making assumptions about challenges for your working parents e.g. One of her clients did not have immediate attrition from mothers returning to work but saw a drop off at 12-18 months.?

·? Create a culture of support and recognition that working parents (in particular mothers) are valued for what they contribute, not judged on the amount of time they are working

·? Highlight your working mothers within the business - ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. Ask mothers in your organisation to talk about their experience, challenges and how they overcame them. When women in senior positions talk about how they are making it work, it sends a powerful message to others in the business

·? Create communities for working parents within your organisation so that there is a support network particularly for returnees and that peer to peer learning is available

·? Change your parental leave policies offering men more paid paternity leave or enhanced shared parental leave in order for father’s to play a more active role in their children’s lives. These policies challenge societal norms and perceptions of at home caregivers, which in turn, changes the societal expectation that women are the primary caregivers.

·? Subsidise early years childcare until the free childcare hours kick in, this allows the financial burden of the return to work become easier

·? Offer flexibility that is realistic within the working year term time versus the holidays, WFH options, shifting hours and also unexpected changes such as child sickness

·? Look at returnee programs for mothers who have taken a prolonged period out of work to care for children

Retaining more mothers in the industry is the key to closing the gender pay gap. Finding ways to better help ourselves, your team and employees in your company navigate the world of being a working parent will provide happier and more fulfilling careers and a more diverse and successful workforce. There is a real opportunity for us to make a change that means future generations of women and working parents benefit and that means the ‘motherhood penalty’ is a thing of the past.??