Gender Bias

Women with children earn about 22% less than their male colleagues,
according to a new report that explores the "devastating" impact of
motherhood on earnings.

"Before becoming parents, men and women are equally likely to be
employed, but childbirth marks the start of a great divide, which
continues even after children have left home and does lasting damage
to women's careers," the report finds.

Around 57% of mothers with children under five are in paid work,
compared with 90% of men, according to the research published by the
Fawcett Society. Partnered women without dependent children earn 9%
less than men on average, but for mothers working full-time who have
two children, the pay gap with men in the same situation is 21.6%.

"For each year she is absent from the workplace, a mother's future
wages will reduce by 5%," says the study, entitled Not Having it All:
How Motherhood Reduces Women's Pay and Employment Prospects. Mothers
are also much more likely than fathers to adjust their work to fit in
with their children's schedules.

"It is critical that those mothers who choose or need to be in paid
work should be able to do so without suffering a pay penalty," said
Katherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society.

Mothers often return to work part-time, which has a critical impact on
wage levels. This is because part-time work is more likely to be low
paid, and women working part-time are less likely to be promoted, will
have less access to training and are more likely to be made redundant.

"Mothers are faced with impossible choices. To find jobs that are
compatible with childcare, they have to make major compromises,
trading down their careers so that they can meet their children's
needs. The challenge now for government is to support mothers to
maintain their position in the workforce and achieve the family life
that they want," Rake said.

The pay penalty is one of the highest in Europe, according to separate
research published by the University of Manchester. The study showed
that working mothers in the UK are half as likely as childless women
to work in high-earning professions and eight times more likely to
work part-time. These figures put the UK in last place out of the six
countries studied – the others being Finland, Denmark, Germany, the
Netherlands and France.

Poor access to childcare is the main reason for this disparity, the
report concludes. "Britain offers the shortest parental leave
entitlement of all six countries and little access to affordable
childcare," said Vanessa Gash, the report's author.