Friday 9 March 2012

What puts women off returning to work?

Today on Radio 4's PM programme I heard a letter from a listener calling for recognition that the cost of childcare is not the only factor that prevents women from returning to work. Hear, hear! However the letter continued to read that some carers choose to bring up their own offspring, rather than ask others to do so.....Now, I realise that I speak as someone who has had the luxury of working flexibly across time and location, especially during the period in which my 3 babies were really little, since I was an RA with a fantastically understanding (female) boss and was not a full blown academic. Nevertheless, I feel this dichotomy is not so sharp. Below, I have identified a few of reasons that influence women (or main carers, but these are still mostly women) in their career choice.

1) How much does it matter *where* you are doing the work? In many cases, not a lot. Yet some organisations appear to be especially obsessed with the workforce being visibly 'at work' to their managers. Where is the evidence that this makes an efficient workforce? Obviously for some professions e.g. surgeon, teacher, production line worker, the need to be in a particular place might be paramount. For many others, an insistence that paperwork is done in an office prevents mothers working flexibly alongside their children's lives. Many times I have heard professionals say things like 'she is not the same since she had the baby' perhaps implying some sort of cognitive malfunction. More accurately they should say ' she hasn't been the same since we created a forced separation between her and her baby despite the fact that most of this could be done at home'.  Increasing travel costs, lack of space and advanced technology should make this even more sensible, but flexible working often means one can come in at 10 and work til 6 instead of 9 to 5 rather than something more substantial.  Joint working on particular roles also works very well for Mothers-who-Work because they can cover for one another at meetings if a child is sick, or in a school play (see below), but this is also discouraged by some managers.

2) How much does it matter *where* the childcare is? Quite a lot. For the the roles and parts of roles that require child free or on-site participation, would it not make more sense to have nurseries that are actually accessible to the parent?  Most people leave their children several miles away in childcare making it stressful and difficult to return if there is a problem, and stressful even if there are no problems. Furthermore, it completely negates the possibility of a mix and match style. Nurseries within the workplaces (and I mean in the actual building) would mean that parents could attend a two hour meeting, have lunch with their child, return to work, have a quick afternoon stroll with their child, and then return to work again. This is much more akin to the extended family model of childcare, without actually requiring a family member to be present.

3) How much does it matter that people recognise what being a mother entails? A lot. There seems to be a prevailing mentality in some organisations that having a child is a little a kin to having a pet - it needs looking after, can't be left on its own, needs feeding at regular intervals etc. and so you can just pay someone to do all that and return to work. If women are to return to work with fervour, it matters that employers understand that women have opened up an entirely new set of demands on their out of work time. If you are a woman who is good at her job, it is also likely that you will be under pressure to a) run the local playgroup b) organise a fundraising event for school c) be a school governor d) do the parent rota at Brownies/Cubs or e) all of the above. Even if you are not recognised as a high flier you will still be expected to f) organise a social calendar of play dates g) bake cakes or provide raffle prizes at a moment's notice h) attend parents' evenings, plays, literacy workshops and assemblies also usually with less than two weeks' notice and my favourite of all time i) dress your child up (ideally better than the other children) as a mini-beast, book-day character, victorian, anglo-saxon, pudsey bear (we have done ALL of these) on top of the play outfits and themed non-uniform days, and again (you guessed it) with a few days notice. Parents should receive this wardrobe requirement list at their antenatal class or perhaps even during sex education classes just in case they are feeling poorly skilled in this area. Following this your child will then need ferrying to and from various clubs, playdates and school events.   So this is partly a note to schools as well as employers that a month or two's planning wouldn't go a miss for Mothers-who-Work.

One of the major issues with all of these factors is the very fact that people assume that Mothers-who-Work are either workaholics who barely see their child, will never make any of the child-based activities and who cannot cope with working flexibly. Or that you are an earth-mother who spends every day just waiting to make that next costume. Most of us are a healthy mix.

I realise that some women with children and some employers will baulk at the ideas above especially 1) and 2). But there are more intelligent, efficient and creative models that could be applied to encourage a balanced workforce and to prevent loss of highly valuable female potential and training. Importantly these alternatives do not mean poorer productivity or output, just change.   Until we consider that possibly and as long as we continue working in the current model, women with children will always make different career pathways for themselves compared to their male counterparts.

1 comment:

  1. Worth seeing if this can be made a political issue, as I suspect that the easiest place to start the change is in the public service. Which organisation would take the lead, do you think? Feel cautious of taking a lead myself since I got egged by the Girls' Schools for suggesting that they did.

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