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Women face many obstacles in their working life. Motherhood is one of them. Indeed, many employees say that their family responsibilities have slowed down their progress on the job market.
More than 7,000 women from seven countries were asked about the impact of motherhood on their work as part of Avon’s “Global Progress for Women” survey, reported by the magazine Stylist. A third of them say that their family life, and more particularly childcare, has been detrimental to their career advancement. And for good reason, women often find it difficult to reconcile work and family responsibilities.
Although many governments choose to extend paternity leave to encourage fathers’ involvement in the home, mothers tend to invest more in the care and upbringing of children. A phenomenon that finds its roots in the persistent idea of a supposed maternal vocation. As a result, women often make the choice to reduce or cease their professional activity upon the arrival of a child.
However, more flexible ways of organizing work would help them to reconcile their family and professional lives. While flexibility has become a strong value for many companies since the Covid crisis, the professionals interviewed by Avon noted inequalities in its application. Thus, 41% of them say that it is more difficult for them to work flexibly than their male counterparts.
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Maternity penalty
This injustice is due to the fact that managers often display a certain reluctance to grant telecommuting to mothers. They are suspicious of their involvement and mistakenly believe that women would focus less on their home missions. A study conducted in Germany in 2019 has shown the opposite, however, by establishing that women in telework devote, on average, more hours per day to their professional tasks than when they are in the office.
All of these gender stereotypes show that women pay what sociologists call a “motherhood penalty”. This formula refers to the idea that female employees who have children are less devoted to their work than their male counterparts. What hinder their prospects for development in terms of career, but also promotions and salary increases.
There is an urgent need for businesses and governments to address these issues to enable women to reach their professional potential, according to Angela Cretu, CEO of Avon. “Many women still face obstacles when it comes to their freedom of choice, their work and their ability to earn money. We want to change that. Removing barriers to economic participation that women face is key to helping them progress“, she told Stylist.