Companies "could do more" to support working mothers

Citation

(2003), "Companies "could do more" to support working mothers", Career Development International, Vol. 8 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi.2003.13708gab.004

Companies "could do more" to support working mothers

Companies "could do more" to support working mothers

Women in Britain feel that they do not get enough support from companies when it comes to juggling careers and motherhood.

A study carried out with iVillage. co.uk, a Web site for women, revealed that 96 per cent of women who have ever worked believe that companies could be doing more to retain qualified women.

The survey sought to identify the pressures facing women in the UK today, and ultimately whether women "can have it all". The results reveal that women find it hard to return to work at the same or higher level – three quarters of women had not returned to the same company, job or level following the birth of a child. Women feel they are not getting enough support in the home and with child care.

Some employers, however, feel they have got it right when it comes to supporting working mothers.

Tesco is the UK's largest private employer, with 220,000 staff, two-thirds of whom are women. Mark Roberts, HR manager, said: "We recognize the concerns that mothers face when returning to work after having a baby. At Tesco, we give support and flexibility to allow mothers to explore the range of work options available, such as part-time working and job-share arrangements. It is also important for employers to understand the demands outside of work and give people time to get accustomed to a new role.

"Many returners to Tesco comment on the strong network within stores and how mothers can share experiences and help each other. Having a baby should not place a stop on career progression, either. Many mothers have gone on to senior positions within the company and manage their work-life balance with great success."

The key findings of the survey are:

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  Companies in the UK are not doing enough to retain qualified professional women. In open questions during the survey, women in general were asked what employers could do to retain women in the workplace. The overridingresponse was one of improved flexibility for working women with children.

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  Women are not being offered flexibility at work in terms of variable working hours, career breaks, job sharing, compressed working weeks, home working or sabbaticals. For instance, 77 per cent of demoted women were neither offered, had not used or did not know whether they were able to work from home; half did not know, had not used or were not offered variable working hours.

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  Women are being demoted through childbirth in the UK. Some 73 per cent are not going back to the same company, 74 per cent not to the same job, 76 per cent not to the same – or higher – level.

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  Further adding to the pressures facing women going back to work after having had children is the fact that those without children feel they have to pick up the slack from those with children. More than one third (36 per cent) of working women without children agree that people without children are expected to pick the slack.

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  Some 61 per cent of those who left work to have children said that they were ready to return to work when they did, and 63 per cent claim that it was the best thing for their family.

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  The situation for women is compounded by the fact often they still shoulder the majority of the burden of household and child-care responsibilities. For instance, 76 per cent alone do all the laundry, compared with 4 per cent of men alone doing all the laundry, 63 per cent alone do all the cleaning (3.2 per cent men alone), 74 per cent alone take time off when child is sick (3 per cent men alone), 79 per cent alone organize all activities (1 per cent men alone). Such is their frustration with this imbalance that nearly half (44 per cent) of all women in the UK with partners feel that their partner creates more work that he contributes.

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  Of all the women who completed the survey, 91 per cent believe that women often have to make big sacrifices in their relationship or family to achieve their career goals, whereas only 49 per cent believe that men have to make sacrifices. Nearly two thirds (65 per cent) believe that a woman who leaves work to raise a child will probably never rise to the top of her profession. More than 60 per cent believe it is impossible to combine parenthood with a career. Overall, women believe that while it is difficult or very difficult (55 per cent) for a woman to have it all, it is easy or very easy for men (48 per cent). For demoted women this is even more extreme, with 61 per cent thinking it is very difficult while 52 per cent think it is easy or very easy for men.