Maternity leave and other “family friendly” policies should be scrapped to increase gender equality in the workplace.
That is the controversial claim made by the head of a right-wing think tank this week in comments likely to reignite debate over one of the most divisive issues in modern employment practices.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Sheila Lawlor, director of Politeia, said paid maternity leave was creating a “great burden” for women and was preventing them from finding employment and advancing their careers.
She argued that taking time out to look after children means many mothers missed out on vital promotions and experience at work, while employers are dissuaded from hiring women because of the potential costs of paid maternity leave.
“Maternity leave is creating a great burden on many women and businesses. The legislation puts employers off employing women. Companies are reluctant to give jobs to women of childbearing age,” she said.
“We have to abandon what is wrongly called ‘family -friendly’ legislation, including the sole option maternity leave.
“Most ordinary women in most ordinary jobs do badly when they take advantage of family-friendly legislation. It takes longer for them to catch up on earnings when they return and they don’t accrue pension rights while they are away.”
Her comments are likely to cause consternation among women’s rights campaigners, many of whom see tackling prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory practices as the main barrier to be overcome in establishing greater gender equality in the workplace, rather than a reduction in employment rights.
In an interview with the Guardian last year, Rosalind Bragg, director of the advice and campaigning group Maternity Action claimed there is still “widespread acceptance of pregnancy discrimination amongst employers”.
She added: “Very few women take any action over pregnancy discrimination so most employers will get away with it.”
Surely better to enforce maternity and paternity across the board rather then punish women who need time for their bodies to recover and to bond with their children
If it was the responsibility of men to carry and bear children I doubt if we would have to justify the importance of doing that.! the fact that this impacts on their careers and earning capability is down to the fact that most of the laws and decisions which which affect women are usually made by men.
And what about the vast majority of jobs that don’t fast-track up a career ladder? Women who work as teachers and cleaners, nurses and shelf-stackers, secretaries and librarians, bus drivers and policer officers – most of these women could not afford to take a year out of work to have a child without maternity leave.
The tone of the comments actually sounds more like it’s the break than the money that makes the difference though. So drop the sprog then back in the office a few days later? Where’s the baby going to go? An expensive nursery?
i cannot believe that it has come to this! why punish women further – so those who wish to have children will be placed under immense pressure to drop and run! Please! this is taking things too far!!!
I find this astonishing….drop the sprog and dash back….As man brought/father, child nurturing by the mother gives better prospects for the future growth and development of the offspring. job satisfaction is not the same as satisfaction in life and we will be very myopic to think so.due to the changed norms of economic survival we should not throw out the natural values we as beings ascribe to.
I can see soon a families getting test-tube babies, growing them in a nursery passing them on to school and college then employment for the simple reason of getting better job pay and promotion.not every one can be at the top for the world to look perfect: we have poor and an employed/poorly employed parents bringing up good families.
we need to look at better work place policies that encourage good families rather thabn try to erase the gains made so far for better job positioning at the expense of precious motherhood
When are those of us that choose not to have children going to get an equivalent amount of paid time off? Everyone always makes concessions to baby factories! In the background are women like me who not only pick up the workload whilst these females take their paid time off work but then sit there scratching our heads wondering when we can have paid time off. Where’s the equality in that? Having kids is a lifestyle choice – you should save up enough money if you want kids – including enough wages to take time off work if you choose to. Then they get child benefit, child tax credits, free nursery, free after school clubs and then a free education up to age 18. What more do they want?? But remember – it’s the bankers that f*cked this country, eh? It makes me so angry.