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Maternity discrimination is real - here's how one city is trying to abolish the 'motherhood penalty' for good

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester - Andrew Crowley
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester - Andrew Crowley

GREATER Manchester has a proud history of shaking up the establishment. Our radical and forward-thinking residents have pioneered movements and inventions which have changed democracy. Today is no different. We may face new challenges but Greater Manchester continues to be at the forefront of change.

Devolution has given us the opportunity to do things differently once again. It has enabled us to lead the way in making life better for everyone across our city-region.

Nationally, gender equality is an enormous issue. One hundred years since Emmeline Pankhurst shook our country to the core and won women the right to vote, women are still not treated as equals in the workplace.

A key symptom of this is the gender pay gap. The reasons behind the gap are complex but there can be no doubt that motherhood plays a critical role. Statistics from the Institute of Fiscal Studies show that by the time a woman’s first child is 12 years old, her hourly rate of pay will be 33% behind a man’s.

We need to ensure that we utilise the skills and expertise of everyone in Greater Manchester. Women are being let down by a system which frankly isn’t working for them. When one part of society fails then we all do.

British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928) being jeered by a crowd in New York - Credit: Topical Press Agency/ HULTON ARCHIVE
British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928) being jeered by a crowd in New York Credit: Topical Press Agency/ HULTON ARCHIVE

That’s why I have been working closely with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Motherhood Plan Community Interest Company to try to better understand why motherhood creates so many challenges for women in their careers and what action we can take to address them.

Research shows that 54,000 women a year in Great Britain lose their jobs due to pregnancy or maternity, and 77% of working mums experience workplace discrimination. These figures almost doubled between 2006 and a decade later.

The research, by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, made a series of recommendations to the Government that would seriously improve the outlook for working mothers and pregnant women.

To date, no decisive action has been taken. Since the research was published in 2016, 152,000 women have been pushed out of their jobs. Many of these women will suffer a significant knock to their confidence and mental health due to this and may never feel able to return to work.

The benefits of fixing the gender pay gap to stop discrimination against pregnant women and mothers are numerous and could improve the UK’s economy by £36 billion. With Brexit looming the utilisation of everyone’s skills is critical.

'Research shows that 54,000 women a year in Great Britain lose their jobs due to pregnancy or maternity' - Credit: JGI/Jamie Grill/Blend Images
'Research shows that 54,000 women a year in Great Britain lose their jobs due to pregnancy or maternity' Credit: JGI/Jamie Grill/Blend Images

Here in Greater Manchester we are doing things differently.

We are asking local businesses to pledge their commitment to ending pregnancy, maternity and paternity discrimination and to make their workplaces the best they can be for working parents.

When organisations have pledged their commitment, we are supporting them to overcome some of the hurdles they may encounter when managing pregnancy and parental leave through return to work programmes, flexible working and job shares.

Most companies do not actively try to discriminate, but they do need support. Working Forward Greater Manchester works to give employers access to a team of experts, with a database of case studies and knowledge to draw on.

Businesses of all sectors and sizes across Greater Manchester, such as the Co-op, Bruntwood, Thomas Cook Airlines, Code, Thoughtworks, Royal Northern College of Music and Salford Council, are on board already.

Gender pay gap | Myths that need to be broken
Gender pay gap | Myths that need to be broken

Working Forward has existed as a national programme for 12 months with 100 founding members, major multinationals sharing the same vision to address these long-standing and ingrained challenges. Focusing the programme on Greater Manchester makes complete sense – employers here want to demonstrate significant change can be achieved in such a way as to positively impact our workforce, our businesses and our regional economy.  

This is just one part of our ambition to support our businesses to become more productive and create good jobs. Greater Manchester has world-leading businesses and sectors, investing, innovating and growing. They have created a record number of jobs in our city-region, but we can do better. Too many of our residents are in low paid and insecure work, unable to fulfil their potential, get a home or provide a secure start for their children.

Too many of our residents are in low paid and insecure work, unable to fulfil their potential, get a home or provide a secure start for their children

That is why we are also developing a Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter – to support employers to reach best practice. Being developed in close collaboration with employers, employees and others, the Charter will support our businesses to grow, our public and voluntary and community services to continue to improve, and create the well-paid, secure and fulfilling jobs our city-region needs.

These are issues which won’t be fixed overnight and, while we don’t expect them to be, by doing things differently we are making Greater Manchester the best place in the country to grow up, get on and grow old.

Greater Manchester is working together, across all sectors, to find solutions to the problems we face. I am proud to be Mayor of a city-region which is full of people who want to make life better for others.

Together we are working to close our city-region’s gender pay gap. Together, we are leading the way.