96% of women think they are under too much pressure

Almost all working mums think there is too much pressure on women at home and at work, according to workingmums.co.uk’s annual survey.

The survey found 96% think women are under too much pressure. The main ways they think that pressure could be alleviated is through the provision of better childcare, a reduction in workloads to manageable levels and more flexible senior roles.

The survey of over 1,600 mums found many had not fully anticipated the challenges they would face. Over two thirds said that they did not fully understand the challenges parents faced before they had children and 28% said they were not sympathetic to working parents before, with 41% saying they were only quite sympathetic.

However, 45 per cent were worried about how having children might affect their career, with the biggest reason given being the impact on their promotion prospects if they reduced their hours, attitudes to mums at work and worries about being left behind.

The survey covered flexible working in detail. Thirty nine per cent of mums said they had no flexibility in their job and 45 per cent are working full time. The poll was launched before lockdown and shows just 9% worked mainly from home.

When it comes to partners, just 7% work part time, with 37% working flexibly, at least occasionally [22% work flexibly and 15% work flexible occasionally].

A significant number had had requests for flexible working turned down. Twenty nine per cent had been told their employer would not agree a flexible working request, with 40% having to leave their job as a result. And 20% had had flexible working agreed and then taken away – with nearly half having to leave their job as a result.

The importance of flexible working was clear, with over half [52%] of mums saying they had turned down a job because it was not flexible enough.

• Vote  
• 0
• 0
• You already voted!