Will the new parental leave stop women being bumped off the career ladder?

We’ve all heard the stories of so-called  “supermums” such as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer who return to work two weeks after giving birth, wearing their refusal to take their full maternity leave as a badge of honour. Opinion has traditionally been divided as to whether this is behaviour to admire or abhor. Are these women proving their commitment to their jobs and their equal status with their male counterparts, or are they just bowing to financial and social pressures, and in the process making things harder for those of us who might want to spend time nurturing our newborns?

Until last week, those were the only real options for women when considering maternity leave—quickly return to work and risk being branded cold-hearted and a bad mother, or take the maximum time off and have your dedication to the career you have spent the past decade or so building cast into doubt. It’s a tricky choice which I in my mid 30s have so far shied away from making and I’m not alone —these days one in four women are childless by 40. It’s hard to judge exactly how large a role career pressures play but it’s definitely been a factor in my decision to delay. Now, it seems my chances of juggling both career and family have finally improved—thanks to the government’s plans to introduce shared parental leave in 2015.

There is no doubt that this is a groundbreaking reform of a hugely outdated system, which has helped enshrine many of the prejudices women face in the workplace. “Your career is pretty much finished once you have kids” are words I have heard countless times from talented, brilliant women who were once headed to the top of their professions, but are now consigned to the fringes. Yes, they love their children. But, that doesn’t make the sacrifice any easier. “I never hire women of child-bearing age,” a female friend who runs her own business told me firmly. “I have no plans to get pregnant, and I expect my staff to follow my example.”

These attitudes are reflected in a recent survey by the parenting website Mumsnet which focused on the experiences of new mums returning to work—three quarters of respondents said they found it harder to progress their career afterwards. Nearly a fifth (17 per cent) said that their manager or employer was not supportive during their pregnancy, with one in four of those feeling that their job was under threat. There are countless shocking examples of maternity discrimination listed on Mumsnet, including the testimony of a woman who had been in her job for three years and was told to have her pregnancy terminated because her employer claimed they couldn’t “afford the maternity pay.”

It’s a pretty bleak picture, which the new regulations can only improve. From April 2015, men and women can choose to split 50 weeks of parental leave between them, with both being entitled to two weeks off immediately after the birth. Currently, a mother can elect to share her leave with the father but only once the child is 20 weeks old. Under the new rules, a mother can return to work as soon as she likes, handing her unused allowance over to her partner. There’s also the option to switch back again.

Criticism of this policy, which is the brainchild of Nick Clegg and the Equalities Minister Jo Swinson (who is herself eight months pregnant), has focused on everything from the alleged “burden” it places on employers (despite businesses retaining the right to insist the leave is taken as a continuous block), to the fact it could force women to abandon breastfeeding earlier than they might wish, and talk of how the “natural bond” between mother and child might suffer. These are predictable arguments with varying degrees of validity, but the latter grates the most as it ignores a key driver behind this policy—the want and need for fathers to become more involved in childcare.

These days the modern woman seeks equality from her partner. Often she earns more, the chores are split equally and many men I know happily dominate in the kitchen—but it is still rare to find a household where the childcare is evenly shared. The reason being that women are cast into the primary carer role for the first year, and once the pattern is established it’s hard to break. A friend recently vented to me about the difficulties this had caused in her marriage, as she found herself suddenly no longer on equal footing with her husband. Another marvelled at the fact her husband, unlike most, actually does pull his weight (they are both self-employed which helps with flexibility).

Of course, we need to be realistic. This is a legislative shift and a change in social attitudes will take time. Men might not be as willing as their partners would like to share the load in this manner, for fear of being publicly mocked or disrupting their careers. The fear that both parents’ jobs might suffer as result could be enough to stop people splitting their leave. A survey earlier this year revealed that 70 per cent of men think there is a social stigma attached to taking paternity leave, while a quarter thought it could damage their position at work.

But, we can’t just give in to prevailing social pressures and ignore this chance for change. Yes, there might be uncomfortable moments on all sides but surely that’s better than the current situation where women bear the brunt of the discrimination. When I have children, I am hopeful that both myself and my partner will form a special bond with our child—that we both have the right amount of time to do this, and neither of us will face demotion or stagnation in our hard-fought careers. Thanks to Jo Swinson and Nick Clegg (I can’t believe I’m saying that either), this might just be a reality.