Is maternity leave failing both women and equality?

Almost daily, I find myself coming back to this same sticky question: is it time to end maternity leave as we know it?

The idea struck me years ago, as I pounded the pavements releasing frustration and sadness after a meeting with a new mum and her boss discussing her return to work from maternity leave. The meeting had been a gruelling hour that had pretty much ended in stalemate.

She wanted to work four days, her boss wasn’t having any of it. But the impasse had started long before at the moment she announced her pregnancy – a top performer was going to be out of the business for 12 months.

Anyone who has been either side of maternity conversations, or the HR person in the middle, will be familiar with the palpable tension. Too often, the adult-adult dynamics quickly morphing into a parent-child relationship – and it’s often hard to know who is the ‘parent’ and who is the ‘child’.

I only wish Ted Lasso had been around back then to help ease the tension - be curious, not judgmental folks.

Working parents in the spotlight

These days it’s hard to escape conversations that involve working parents. The pandemic shone a light on their challenges in a way we’d never seen before. Now any debate around the cost of living, equal pay, women’s health, men's health, flexibility, hybrid working, childcare, mental health or gender equity has working parents right in the midst of it.

The good news is it’s driving many more organisations to introduce policies that better support working parents and the journey to parenthood. Encouragingly, dads are gaining recognition for their invaluable role at home and are being offered enhanced paternity leave, paid shared parental leave and, at best, equal parental leave. There’s also more opportunities to work flexibly.

But is increasing paternity leave the answer?

Well, yes. At least that seems the prevailing view in conversations I’ve heard. Yet the data tells a different story. According to the 2023 British Social Attitudes report, an overwhelming 51% of people feel the best way to arrange work and care when children are young is for the father to work full time and the mother to work part time or stay at home.

Equally, in all the conversations involving gender equity, I’ve never heard maternity leave questioned or challenged.

Why is that? Does no one see issues with this long-held policy?

I’m becoming skeptical. I can’t help but wonder if our year-long maternity leave perpetuates inequity, rather than it being the lack of paternity leave. That the construct perhaps hinders progress more than it helps.

The problem with maternity leave

In the UK, eligible women are entitled to 52 weeks’ maternity leave. Eligible men are entitled to 2 weeks’ paternity leave. This 50-week differential innately appoints mothers as primary caregiver. It invites, even expects, women to adopt that role; to believe it’s their role. And offers quite the opposite to fathers.

This lopsided policy has shaped our cultural norms. It’s considered ‘acceptable and familiar’ for mums to take a year off as primary caregivers and for dads to promptly get back to work. The parenting roles engrained in our mindset and beliefs.

And the same patterns ripple through society - from who health visitors address on home visits, how men feel unwelcome and sometimes excluded at play-groups, which parent gets the call from nursery when the child is sick, which restaurant bathroom has baby changing facilities.

All the while, we’re struggling to retain women in the workplace and it's challenging to embrace dads taking time off to become more involved fathers.

And as a former Partner leading HR & Operations and a mum of two kids, I know 12 months’ leave has a high cost for everyone – mums, dads and employers. For business, it’s too long to cover roles smoothly, recruitment is challenging and tensions often run high during the transitions as work is dispersed or reallocated and relationships fracture. For women, the extended time out brings a loss of confidence, feelings of anxiety, a sense of isolation or disconnect from colleagues, loss of professional momentum and financial challenges. For men, they can't seem to win.

Is it time for change?

I believe we need to step away from the policy parade and take a look at our mindset and behaviours. It's when we become curious and not judgmental that change happens and this is where success lies.

I mean, what if we scrapped maternity leave as we know it? What if we made it shorter? Or more flexible? Or gave parents 6 months leave at childbirth then a further month each year until school? Or allowed women to continue to work a bit during leave without forfeiting pay? Or simply enabled women and their employers to collaboratively work out what’s best for them in that moment, based on the job and career demands?

I can’t help but imagine the long-term gains for us all if only we could dare to think about it differently; to stand up and use our creative power to revolutionise parental leave and re-imagine a different future for parents, our children and for our economy. Has the time finally come?