For many, parenthood is one of the most joyous and life-enriching experiences. However, couples should be cautious not to sleepwalk into the decision to become parents without first being aware of the probable impact of parenthood on a mother’s career and earnings, and a partner’s opportunity to share care with their partner. Knowledge is power – use this insight to predict the challenges that may arise and work out how to mitigate their impact on how you want to combine both of your careers with parenthood’s shared role.
In our experience, millennials are far less likely to experience gender bias in their early careers than previous generations. Women are successfully getting ahead and, in some cases, overtaking men in education and early careers. The gender pay gap just isn’t there when you’re in your twenties. It’s later in your career when it starts to show up. It is understandable why many millennials don’t predict that this position will change when they become parents.
We often find in coaching conversations that parenthood is the first-time millennial women experience gender bias, in the form of the “motherhood penalty”. This term is used by researchers to describe the impact that motherhood has on women’s earnings and career progression over the long-term. This topic is so pressing that Netflix released a 20-minute ‘explainer’ programme discussing it, highlighting how the persistence of the gender pay gap in today’s world ultimately comes down to women having children.
Of course, motherhood comes with many advantages, but a higher income is not one of them! Motherhood is one of the most significant factors still propping open the gender pay gap – contributing to the lack of women on boards and in senior leadership roles.
In Europe, first-time mums see a 30% drop in pay after giving birth for the first time – and this never recovers. A decade after having a child, a women’s earnings plateau to around 20% below the original level she was earning before becoming a parent. In the USA, mothers get paid a meagre 71 cents for every dollar received by fathers.
Mothers don’t just take a hit to the purse. Women start falling behind men in seniority and their probability of being promoted just after their first child’s birth. Even in Sweden, a country with some of the most progressive policies to support working parents, men are twice as likely to become chief executives than women.
Women typically change their work pattern in response to having children. They work shorter hours, often in roles that offer greater flexibility in exchange for less pay and take more time off in the five years after their first child is born. This pattern is because most of the care burden typically falls to one parent, and in different-sex couples, it often falls to the woman.
Legislative policy affects how we approach work and home responsibilities; extended periods of paid parental leave increase mothers’ chance to return to work but decrease pay and promotions over the long-term. This outcome is because long breaks typically span critical points when many others are preparing themselves for advancement. In our experience, flexible working is good at keeping women in the workplace, but long-term, it’s not so good for career progression.
Even in today’s modern society where millennial men say that they want to share work and care equally with their partner, gendered attitudes still exist. In a nationwide survey, 46% said they believed a woman becomes less committed to her job after having a child. When asked about specific childcare tasks, men reported that nine out ten are mostly their partner’s responsibility. Dads and partners want to care but struggle with a lack of parental leave, with 75% taking two weeks or less.
If mothers and not their partners use policies like paid leave and taking on the added work at home after having children, the motherhood penalty will continue. The only way to stop these gendered repercussions of having a child is to give people equivalent shares of parental leave and encourage them to take it equally.
Mothers often joke with us about the conspiracy of silence that surrounds childbirth. Thankfully, mums-to-be receive antenatal advice on what to expect, enabling them to prepare for all eventualities and plan the birth they want. Think about your career in the same way. Acknowledge the facts and plan for the life and career you both want.