Latest news with #workingMoms
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
I had kids later than most of my friends. They were able to share valuable advice, but I had to connect with younger moms to survive.
While I was off traveling and getting an advanced degree, most of my friends were having kids. Some of them are dropping kids off at college while I'm still in the grade school pick-up line. I started my family in my 30s, which means younger moms have become my allies — and friends. In my 20s, I watched my friends raise their families. I sipped a margarita while their kids had bedtime tantrums, and provided moral support as they folded the mounds of dirty cloth diapers and onesies. I watched them parent and juggle the responsibilities of work, meal prep, and taking care of the home. While I was busy not settling down, most of my friends already had — and they'd been moms for nearly a decade by the time I had my first child. Life experience and education gave me a lot, but couldn't prepare me for everything I became a mom at 31 after spending my 20s doing exactly what I wanted — painting murals, trips to Europe, and earning an advanced degree in philosophy. While those experiences might not sound like traditional prep from motherhood, having time to do all of that helped me feel ready to be a mom. I learned about myself, what I could handle, and what kind of life I wanted. Were my 20s a crash course in parenting? Not exactly, but they gave me a deeper understanding of the world, one that I hoped to pass on to my own children. I lived a great adventure, so when it came time to settle down, I had no regrets. However, becoming a mom did knock me off balance at first. I know now, becoming a parent is a shock for everyone, but after a decade of independence, I found it incredibly disorienting. The biggest shock was the slow realization of what "settling down" actually meant. Instead of talking about politics or traveling, I was plunged into the foreign world of the "mom circle," where conversations were more about nipple cream, onesies, and parenting methods. These topics weren't wrong, just different, and it took me time to adjust and realize that these women were giving me exactly what I needed. They were giving me the extraordinary tools of mothering through very ordinary conversations. I went from being an expert to a beginner I was used to feeling competent in my career and studies, so starting over as a beginner mom among all my veteran mom friends was intimidating and humbling. Yet I learned quickly and realized the importance of asking for help. These friends were a wealth of knowledge, and I did my best to draw from it. But there was a catch — these moms were no longer sleep-deprived zombies, and what I also needed besides veteran parenting wisdom was someone who could relate. Younger moms became my lifeline I wouldn't normally reach out to younger people for help and advice, but I needed friends who shared my life stage. And yes, I was self-conscious about my age when I found them, but that quickly dissolved over coffee-fueled, spit-up-intensive playdates. These moms have since become lifelong friends, and — added benefit — they keep me feeling surprisingly young, as well. My timeline was right for me Now, my oldest is entering seventh grade, and being an older mom has stretched me in all the right ways. It taught me humility and to lean on the wisdom of others, while reaching out to broaden my peer group. Everyone's timeline is different. I'm thankful for all my experiences in life, and as a mom. They were right for me, and I wouldn't change a thing. Read the original article on Business Insider Solve the daily Crossword
CBC
12-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
New study sheds light on connection between motherhood and job loss
Arina Kharlamova was cradling her two-month-old daughter when an email popped into her inbox that disrupted the calm of her maternity leave. The message invited the Whitby, Ont., woman to a meeting where she was told she was part of a layoff affecting 30 per cent of the staff at the company she worked for. "It felt like a tailspin, honestly," she recalled. "It was very, very destabilizing, very difficult to be present and continue just focusing on my baby rather than starting to panic." Though she didn't know it at the time, Kharlamova was not alone in her experience. A new study funded by advocacy group Moms at Work and law firm Hudson Sinclair found 15 per cent of 1,390 Canadian moms who gave birth in 2022 and 2023 were dismissed, laid off or had their contracts go unrenewed during their pregnancy, maternity leave or when they returned to work. The respondents were surveyed online and reached through social media posts, email blasts and partner organizations, including women's associations across Canada. The overall Canadian workforce has an average involuntary turnover rate of 5.1 per cent, according to 2023 research from consulting firm Mercer. Allison Venditti, Moms at Work's founder, found the gap striking even though she had long suspected there was a connection between motherhood and job loss. She's heard many stories of pregnant women or new moms losing their jobs. Some, like Kharlamova, were terminated as part of a larger group of layoffs because their employer was closing or downsizing, which means they likely would have lost their jobs regardless. However, Venditti suspects that some companies add pregnant women or mothers to broader layoff lists because they're "out of sight, out of mind" and easy to cut when managers are asked to let go of staff. Others terminate them because they worry parenting will get in the way of work or reduce productivity, she said. Concerns often dismissed When Venditti broached the phenomenon with other people, she says they told her things such as, "it's not a real problem" or "anecdotally hearing it from a couple of women doesn't make it true." Realizing that "in order to fix the problem, you have to show that it's a problem," she set off to collect data. At 15 per cent, the findings suggests this group has more than three times the involuntary departure rate as the broader working population. That wound up being "validating" for Deborah Hudson, a Toronto employment lawyer whose firm co-funded the survey. She's had at least 100 clients, including three in a recent week, draw a link between their pregnancies and their unemployment. Employers cannot lay off workers because they've taken leave but are allowed to terminate employees during their leave if the reason for the cut is entirely unrelated to them being pregnant or giving birth, Hudson said. That means moms on parental leave can legally be laid off if their employer goes out of business, closes one of its divisions or cuts a wide swath of its workforce to cope with mounting costs. But a company can't hire someone to temporarily cover a leave and then terminate the original worker to give the job to their replacement for the long term, Hudson says, because Canadian laws dictate that employees on parental leave must be reinstated to their original position or a comparable role upon their return. In these cases and others, employers are betting their employees won't go to lawyers, she says. Employers that cut staff as a result of their impending or current parental status are often hoping workers won't have the time, energy or funding to fight them, Venditti said. When they do, she said it often ends up in a settlement because no one wants to endure a lengthy and expensive legal process. "These are women who have been on maternity leave and are often getting 55 per cent (of their wages through employment insurance) who need to go back to work and are, in most instances, not in a financial position to go after their company because they're trying to find daycare and a new job," she said. WATCH | Calls to reform EI so those on parental leave qualify: Government pressured to reform EI so those on parental leave qualify 1 year ago Duration 1:55 The NDP is leading a push for reform to Employment Insurance so that people who are laid off while on parental leave, or shortly after returning from it, still qualify for benefits. Critics say the current system discriminates against parents. Lack of flexibility upon return to work also a problem While the bulk of Canadian mothers Moms at Work surveyed kept their jobs through pregnancy, 16 per cent were denied flexible work during that time and 11 per cent said they were discouraged from attending prenatal appointments. After giving birth but still on leave, 21 per cent said they were pushed to work while off with their baby and 29 per cent reported feeling pressured to return early. When they were back on the job, 26 per cent reported reduced earnings because they were demoted to lower paying jobs or got fewer bonuses and commissions. Twenty-five per cent were denied promotions and one in six were reassigned "undesirable duties." Those numbers suggest to Venditti that "women are coming back to organizations that are making it very clear that they don't want them there." "If they're not pushing you out the door, many places are trying," she said. Companies should instead think more long-term, said Beth Wanner, a Regina-based marketing executive who started Mother Cover, a firm supporting workers that take leave. She said about a third of parents leave their jobs within 18 months of returning from parental leave. Many make the leap to new companies because they felt unsupported during or after pregnancy at their last employer but would have stuck around if they were afforded more flexible work hours or weren't overlooked for promotions or raises. With companies spending up to 200 per cent of someone's salary to replace employees gone for good and pouring months into training new workers, she said there's not just a moral case but also a business case for them to treat women better during and after their pregnancies. "This isn't about charity," she said. "This isn't about just doing what's right." It isn't only companies with a role to play. Venditti said there is much the federal government can do as well. Because Canada's current employment insurance program requires recipients to have worked between 420 and 700 hours prior to a leave, when moms lose their jobs during or following pregnancy, they've likely burned through all of or most of their eligibility. She'd like to see income support for mothers not be contingent on hours worked and be more generous than EI, which pays up to 55 per cent of a woman's salary. She envisions those supports could be offered through a program dedicated just for parental leave, rather than the traditional EI system.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
5 Infuriating Facts About The Motherhood Penalty At Work
The majority of moms in America are working. Seventy percent, in fact. But a large body of research has found that the gift of a child comes at an unfair, heavy price to their careers. Sociologists call it the 'motherhood penalty.' Here is evidence-based research of how the motherhood penalty can play out for working moms in their careers. Having a kid can boost a father's earning power, while it takes away some of the mom's. Women lose 4% of hourly earnings on average for each child they have, while men earn 6% more, research group Third Way found, using decades of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. This gap in earnings persisted even after controlling for factors like family structure or family-friendly job characteristics. Why do fathers get a bump in pay? Michelle Budig, the sociology professor who authored the report, opined that 'Fatherhood may serve as a signal to potential employers for greater maturity, commitment, or stability.' But working mothers are not seen in that same favorable light. And mothers with the least economic advantages paid the highest price ― researchers found that low-income mothers got hit by the wage penalty the hardest. Meanwhile, high-income fathers who were married white college graduates got the biggest wage bonus from becoming a parent. Are you a thirty-something married woman with no plans to have children? Even if you do not want or plan to have children, your employer may still think you do and penalize you accordingly, economists found for a hiring bias study. The researchers sent out 9,000 fictional job applications for part-time secretarial and accounting jobs in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, where it is standard to include marital status and children on resumes. Each applicant was listed as 30 years old, but varying marital and motherhood statuses changed the outcome of callbacks. Married women with older kids had the highest rate of callbacks, while married but childless applicants had fewer callbacks compared to single but childless applicants. Why are working moms with older kids preferred over new working moms? The researchers suggested that women with older kids signal that they are not having more children and therefore 'convey low pregnancy risk and low costs associated with child-care chores.' When you seek a part-time job, you are signaling a desire for flexible hours, but employers may also make assumptions about your availability based on the possibility you will get pregnant. 'Our conjecture is that employers consider childless but married women at particular 'risk' of becoming pregnant,' the study's authors wrote. 'We interpret these findings as presence of substantial hiring discrimination based on realized and expected fertility for part-time jobs ― a possibly surprising result, since these jobs are typically meant to be particularly family-friendly.' Hiring is filled with first impressions built by resumes listing what you have done and what you can do. But mentioning that you are a mother in the hiring process can lead to assumptions about your commitment to being available for work. In a 2007 study, researchers Shelley J. Correll, Stephen Benard and In Paik found that fictional job applications received equivalent positive reviews when parental status was not mentioned. But when the job application mentioned motherhood, those rating the prospective employees 'offered mothers lower salaries and were less likely to hire them because they believed mothers were less competent and less committed to their jobs, a form of discrimination called 'status-based discrimination,'' Correll wrote. After you return to work from having a baby, you may also encounter expectations that you should prioritize family over work. If you go against this expectation by showing commitment to your job, you may face backlash for going against the traditional expectation of being a mother first, a worker second, according to another study by Benard and Correll published in the journal Gender & Society in 2010. The pair recruited 260 participants and asked them to judge job applications by highly successful candidates for a mid-management position. The applicants' professional profiles were similar, but their genders were not. Accomplished mothers were seen to be significantly less likable and less committed than their identical male counterparts who were fathers. 'Women with children seem to face a 'double-bind,'' Benard and Correll wrote. 'Either they are perceived warm and likable, but not competent and committed enough, or, even if they unambiguously show competence and commitment, they are penalized for breaking with traditional gender stereotypes as they are perceived as less warm and more interpersonally hostile.' After having a child, parents often have to take on the added demands of child care. Flexible work arrangements can be a win-win for everyone: When employees get more control over their own schedule, they are happier, which in turn can lead to higher retention and engagement. But again, gender bias is evident. In a 2014 study of over 600 workers, sociologist Christin Munsch analyzed how people reacted to flextime requests between a fictional employee and a human resources representative. When a man requested to work from home for child-care reasons, almost 70% of the participants said they would approve the request. But when that same request came from a woman, that number dropped to about 57%. When men made the child-care request, only about 3% of participants found the man to be not committed to his job, but when a woman did the same, about 16% found her to be not committed to her work. Traditional expectations of motherhood are still being used to judge women. 'Today, we think of women's responsibilities as including paid labor and domestic obligations, but we still regard breadwinning as men's primary responsibility and we feel grateful if men contribute in the realm of child care or to other household tasks,' Munch said. Pregnant Women Are Still Struggling To Keep Their Jobs 12 Famous Women Share Career Lessons They Learned From Mom It's 2019. We Need To Start Describing Women Better Than This.
