Statistics highlight that three quarters of mothers were in work from April – June 2019
25 October 2019
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has released figures that pertain to the employment rates of parents, both male and female, in the UK.
75.1% of mothers with dependent children worked in the period of April – June 2019 with 92.6% of fathers working over the same period. There has been a significant uplift to the portion of working mothers since 2000 when only 66% were in employment. Since the turn of the century, there has been a shift in trends, as the rate of mothers who are employed is now higher than the rate of women without children who are working. Consistently, throughout this period, men with dependent children have had higher rates of employment than those without.
There are some figures that adhere to the suggestion that women still take more responsibility for childcare than men with three in ten mothers confirming that they had to reduce their working hours to account for childcare, as opposed to one in 20 fathers. This implies that there is still substantial work to be conducted to ensure that there are no gender stereotypes attached to who should be the predominant caregiver for children.
CIPP comment
The figures reflect a positive change over the past few years and suggest that the number of stay-at-home mothers, which is thought to contribute to the gender pay gap, is diminishing. It does, however, also imply that women are more likely to adapt their working life to accommodate looking after their children. The CIPP is conducting a survey surrounding alignment of Parental Leave and Pay for men and women, which will inform our response to proposed policies. The survey will run until 22 November 2019 and this is the perfect opportunity to help to mould how parental pay and leave is handled.