New research from a telecommunications firm has revealed that one in 10 mothers who return to work following maternity leave choose to end their employment, instead preferring to set up their own business. It is easy to see why: although it’s undeniable that there has been enormous progress in advancing rights and opportunities for working mothers, it unfortunately remains true that being a woman and having a child still confers disadvantage in the workplace and the wider labour market.
The problem is not so much that women can’t work through or after maternity periods, its more that there is inadequate support and flexibility in place enabling or indeed encouraging them to do so.
For those who are prepared to take the leap, however, the rewards can be great. So-called ‘mum start-ups’ or ‘mumpreneurs’ are perhaps taking advantage of the more mature and empowered perspective that being a new mother can bring, whether they bringing their expertise to digital technologies, more traditional home industries or embarking on a complex and challenging project.
The survey, which encompassed the experiences of 400 mothers over a 20-year period, found that 45 per cent felt that their employers offered inadequate flexibility in the workplace, with many reporting difficulties feeding their children, working from home and being allowed adaptable working patterns.
Four in five mothers who started their own business said that they did so because they felt uncomfortable or uncatered for on their return to the workplace, and 29 per cent said that they found that their jobs were no longer the same once they returned from childbirth and maternity leave.
It is also true that the ease of digital communications has been a significant factor in the rise of the mumpreneur, with one in four reporting that they felt able to set up businesses only because of internet technologies.
It is to be hoped that employers can learn to be as adaptable and innovative as the mothers themselves, but then again maybe the mumpreneur is demonstrating that, for many, there just might be a better way – at least for now.