All the single (household) ladies
According to a 2019 government report, fewer than one in five of all new mothers follow a full time career after maternity leave. Women who were previously in full time employment often either choose to become part time or stop work altogether. This might seem normal and a result of them having a child, not being a woman.
However, if we compare women's work trajectories after having a child to new fathers, the gap is wide. 3 years after having a child, 90% of men are in full time work or are self-employed compared to a mere 28% of women. So why are women so much less likely to return to the working world?
The childcare crisis in the UK is a big part of the problem. The cost of childcare in the UK is the highest in the OECD, with a UK couple where one parent earns the average wage and the other earning ⅔ of the average wage spending 29% of their combined income on full time childcare.
It then becomes more economically logical for one parent to stay at home and look after their children themselves. Largely a result of the wider societal and cultural trends, it often lands on the women to stay home and look after the children.
As women stay at home to look after their children they are sacrificing potential skill development time. Fathers on the other hand, who go back to their full time role continue with little chance and thus, as women stay stagnant and men progress in their careers, the gap between them widens.
Not only do women suffer by losing transferable skills and end up with less savings in their pensions, but wider society also suffers from lost economic output. The Centre for Progressive Policy found that the UK is losing at least £9.4bn in additional earnings per year through mums not returning to work after having a child.
The best way to give women the chance to reach their full potential and rejoin the workforce after having children is to reduce the cost of childcare. This can be done by relaxing the child:staff ratios in the UK. Our current minimum child:staff ratio in the UK is 4.5:1 which in comparison to countries such as France (whose child:staff ratio is 8:1) is one of the most restricted in Europe. By relaxing child:staff rations by simply one child, costs could reduce by 9-20%, providing working mothers with ways to balance their work-family life.
Another method would be to adapt the current government subsidy schemes for childcare. The UK government aims to provide payments to struggling families to help them afford childcare. However, the scheme is deeply flawed and is filled with strict, inflexible requirements for parents to follow. This includes only allowing them to access the scheme through approved childcare providers and only for 38 weeks (the equivalent of school term time). So all parents looking to work throughout school holiday time are once again faced with a difficult decision and taking that length of time away from work is not an easy task.
Instead of continuing with this dysfunctional subsidy scheme, a much more beneficial scheme for parents would be to provide parents with direct cash payments that they can use in the way they choose. They can access the child providers they want and at the times they want. This is a much more flexible system and provides parents, particularly mothers with greater ability to rejoin the workforce while affording childcare services.
As it's International Women's day today it's the perfect time to reiterate that the childcare crisis needs addressing. On this day we celebrate billions of women and the contributions they make to our society, yet there's always that thought at the back of our minds that there would be many more contributions if we just simply fixed this issue.