A new survey by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has revealed that around 54,000 new mothers and pregnant women are forced out of their jobs in the UK, pointing to discrimination at the workplace.
In what is termed as the largest survey of its kind in the UK, IFF Research Ltd interviewed over 3,200 mothers with a child under the age of two and from 3,000 workplaces.
The survey found “11% of the women interviewed reported having been dismissed, made compulsorily redundant where others in their workplace were not, or treated so poorly they felt they had to leave their jobs”.
Leading expert and founder of Parental Choice Sarah-Jane Butler comments, “Despite all the huge strides that women have made since Emily Pankhurst, 1000s of women each year still face discrimination in the workplace due to being pregnant or being a mother. The harassment, unfair treatment and negative attitudes that new mothers face is not only damaging to them but also immensely short sighted of the companies they work for. The loss of talent and experience only costs companies more in the long run and throws our so-called progressive society back into Dickensian times. It is no wonder that fathers aren’t taking up shared parental leave when they see their partners suffering so badly at their hands of their employers.”
EHRC states that if the findings are replicated across the population as a whole and based on these statistics as many as 54,000 women lose their jobs each year.
You can read the full report here
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