Mums Leave Teaching
A recent report has said that women in their thirties are the biggest group of people leaving teaching. Actually, it said mums leave teaching. More than 9,000 of them left teaching in England 2022-23, compared with just over 3,400 men of a similar age.
Are we surprised? Not in the least.
The report is called Missing Mothers and was reported by the BBC. I’ll confess now that I haven’t read the formal report, just the BBC post. But actually, I don’t think I need to. Every women who has a child knows she will pay a career penalty.
Career Penalty Continues For Women
This career penalty will contribute to her being behind the men in similar roles for the rest of her life. (Check out this The increase in the pay gap coincides with the age at which women are more likely to have children under 18 at home. In 2022, 40% of employed women ages 25 to 34 had at least one child at home. The same was true for 66% of women ages 35 to 44 but for fewer – 39% – among women ages 45 to 54. Only 6% of employed women ages 55 to 64 had children at home in 2022.)
Society Needs Women To Have Babies
Society needs women to have children yet society penalises women for it. Not just with a lack of work policies that benefit all parents, but in its general downgrading of everything that is pertinent to women.
Teaching does have equal pay, but just think of how many other areas, particularly associated with caring and children, do not. Caring is an underpaid, undervalued career. Nursery places cost a bomb, nursery staff are paid a pittance. It’s all linked.
Full Equality
We will never have full equality for women until we recognise that society needs women to keep having children. Everyone has to play a part in that. Everyone. That means other women, too. Never complain about things like term time working, or part timers. Promote and support the sisterhood. We ARE all society.
Women should also be allowed to have a career. If they don’t we are missing out on a huge pool of talent! Apart from it being just very, very wrong.
Companies that have addressed this issue know it improves the working lives of both women and men. My son and son in law both had to battle prejudice to get time with their newborns. As I write a new grandchild is about to arrive and my son in law teacher has managed to negotiate paternity leave. It wasn’t easy.
But it is very unlikely to have the long term impact on their careers that motherhood will on their partners. They are viewed with approval, admiration. The mere fact that they are out with their children is often commented upon approvingly.
Give me strength!
To achieve full equality we all have to change and examine our attitudes and brainwashing we’ve experienced over the years. The stark figures and lack of teachers generally will probably mean this particular report will create some changes.
But change is needed everywhere, and in every single one of us. This is not just a fight for mothers.
RenewYou, My Tried and Tested Career Booster!
RenewYou has helped thousands of women make positive and lasting change in their lives. I deliver it one-to-one as part of a bespoke coaching package for women looking to move into leadership, to progress their career, or who wish to be the absolute best version of themselves.
Posted on August 2nd, 2024 by Jane
