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Three-quarters of female executives who have had children consider that maternity leave slows down the hierarchical progression of women “for several years”, according to a survey published Thursday by the Employment Association executives (Apec).
Nearly one in two female executives considers that their return to work was difficult (and even “very difficult” for 14% of female executives), according to this survey carried out by the CSA institute among 840 female executives who had at least one child in the last ten years.
“Maternity remains generally perceived as a setback in the relationship between a woman executive and her employer.“, notes Apec.
In some companies, maternity leave is “reduced to a penalizing absence, a problem to be resolved, instead of being considered as a logical and predictable step in the professional career of women“, continues the organization.
Also, “during their maternity leave, some female executives continue to be connected with their company to different degrees (following up on emails or clients, attending certain online meetings), contrary to the legal obligation“.
More than seven out of ten women returning from maternity leave “talk about difficulty coping with their workload despite fatigue“. Many have not been replaced systematically or often during their absence, with the risk of a “rearly return or an overload of work on return with the danger of exhaustion when returning to the post“.
Conversely, “if the replacement took place in good conditions, the risk is rather that of not returning to your initial position“.
Some women suffer “a progressive +invisibilization+, a +placardization+“, continues Apec which notes that “all of these risks are accentuated in the event of long parental leave“.
According to another Apec survey carried out in December among 2,000 executives, 44% of men consider that inequalities between the two sexes within companies have been reduced over the past five years. Only 15% of women hold this opinion.
When we question women and men, half of the respondents believe that the professional development of female executives is hampered by the fact of having young children. If the parent is a man, only one in four respondents believe that their career will be hampered.
Finally, while Emmanuel Macron announced in January the creation of shorter but better paid birth leave than current parental leave, 69% of respondents would prefer parental leave.short and well paid“on leave”long but poorly paid“.