Too Many Mums ‘Shoved Aside’ At Work

Mothers Feel ‘Shoved Aside’ in the Workplace

Are you a ‘working mother’, and I’m not referring to the 25 hours a day you work as a mother? Do you feel ‘shoved aside’ in the workplace?

Apparently more than one in three (37 per cent) mothers who returned to work after having a child feel ignored when it comes to career progression.

• The survey, conducted in the first week of November, 2013 of 1,029 users of parenting site Mumsnet found 60 percent of women felt less employable having had a child.
• During pregnancy 17 percent of respondents felt that their employer or manager was not supportive, a figure which rose to 25 percent when asked about support on their return to work.
• During pregnancy, nearly half (47 percent) said they were made to feel guilty while one in four (26 percent) felt their job was under threat.
• More than one in three (37 per cent) felt ignored when it came to career progression.

The Liberal Democrats leader, Mr Clegg said: ‘It is sadly still far too common for women to feel shoved aside at work because they’ve decided to have children. Aside from the obvious unfairness, it’s also bad for our economy, which means everybody ends up losing out.’

He added: ‘Modern families come in every thinkable shape and size. In many cases mothers want to work and fathers want to spend more time at home. We need to dramatically update our working practices to accommodate these realities, helping families juggle their lives as they see fit.’ … ‘That is why from April 2015, the Coalition Government is introducing shared parental leave to ensure career options remain open to women after pregnancy.’

Mr Clegg also said: ‘There are many employers out there who do understand the need to retain the best staff and who want to help families better balance work and home. The companies being recognised today set a shining example.‘

Mumsnet has recognised the efforts of five firms that consistently met family-friendly criteria for employees, customers and for their internal policies. The winners of Mumsnet’s gold Family Friendly Awards were: Metro Bank, Matalan, Butlin’s, Pizza Express and Starcom MediaVest Group.

Mumsnet chief executive Justine Roberts said: ‘While we have legislation designed to protect women against discrimination in the workplace it’s clear that in many cases companies are simply not following the rules.’ … ‘Our survey reveals how important the culture created at work is … but with over half of mums saying they felt less employable and three-quarters saying it was harder to progress in their career since having children, it’s clear there’s still lots of work to be done to ensure family friendly practices are commonplace.’

Businesses have warned that the plans could spark chaos, particularly as the Lib Dems want each parent to be able to dip in and out of work throughout the parental leave entitlement.

In all of this debate, the work from home parent (usually mums) have all but been forgotten. Many work from home mums still have to contend with the children, the husband, the work and possibly the weekly trip to the office for that all important ‘office meeting’ designed ‘gel’ all members of the staff into a co-operative group (a waste of time in other words).

Maybe, given the role of technology in our western culture, we should simply throw the old Victorian work ethic out the window and find a new ethos where the work culture doesn’t play such an important role. After all, the 9 to 5 has been replaced by 24/7 for most of us for quite some time now.

• Role on Star Trek.