{"id":1477,"date":"2024-06-21T08:20:41","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T07:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redstarwealth.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1477"},"modified":"2024-06-20T16:57:25","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T15:57:25","slug":"what-is-the-motherhood-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redstarwealth.co.uk\/blog\/what-is-the-motherhood-penalty\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Motherhood Penalty?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While being a parent can fill you with love and joy, it can also come at a cost, especially for women.<\/p>\n

Women Seeking Employment<\/h2>\n

According to the International Labour Force<\/a> (ILO), 52% of women aged 25-54 are participating in the global labour force (i.e, they are employed or actively seeking employment), compared to 95% of men.<\/p>\n

They predict that over the period running to 2025, both male and female labour force participation rates will decline, but that this will be more pronounced among women than men.<\/p>\n

The ILO also found that in 2023, the jobs gap rate for women was 13.7%, compared to 9.3%.<\/p>\n

This highlights how women can face more difficulties finding employment, and one of the driving factors is motherhood.<\/p>\n

Unequal Childcare Responsibilities<\/h2>\n

Childcare responsibilities often fall on women, meaning that many women end up taking career breaks to perform unpaid labour in the form of childcare and domestic work.<\/p>\n

In fact, in their Gender Pensions Gap Report 2024,<\/a> Now: Pensions found that women were 60% more likely to carry out unpaid work and take on primary care roles than men, taking them an average of 26 hours a week, compared to 16 hours for men.<\/p>\n

Given that childcare usually disproportionately falls on women, its requirements tend to have a far larger impact on their working lives than it does for men.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the Fawcett Society and Totaljobs<\/a> found that:<\/p>\n