Finally, a piece of good news about The Motherhood Penalty – a new framework by Champions for Change has just been introduced to help level the playing field in Aotearoa. Sarah Lang looks into what it means – as well as a little refresher on The Motherhood Penalty itself…
“I saw a comic the other day that made me chuckle,” writes Rosalyn D’Mello, a feminist writer, editor and columnist. “A new mom opens her apartment door, newborn in one arm, another kid peering out next to her. The visitor – the grim reaper. ‘Relax, I’m just here for your career!’ he says”.
I imagine many of you are nodding your heads.
So far, we have published six instalments in our series on the motherhood penalty.
If you’re a new reader, missed the stories or need a refresher, the Motherhood Penalty is an economic and societal phenomenon that majorly disadvantages mothers in their careers. In other words, it’s systemic disadvantage that mothers encounter in their careers – including getting lower pay and fewer promotions. Why? Because deeply entrenched beliefs and expectations about what motherhood entails leads to the misconception that having children negatively impacts the work of mothers. Fathers, however, get a pay bump! Gah.
- Our first story was called ‘The Motherhood Penalty: Things Are Even Worse Than We Imagined For NZ Working Mums. Capsule’s Deep Dive into The Motherhood Penalty (A Warning: You’ll Be Livid)’.
- Our second story was called ‘The Motherhood Penalty: ‘I Worked So Hard… Why Is This Happening to Me?’ – Two Mothers On Why They’re Mad And Sad About Stalled Careers, Betrayal and Bias of the Motherhood Work Penalty’.
- Our third story also made people livid: ‘The Motherhood Penalty: ‘My CEO Got Mad With Me, Ignored Me, Took Away My Job, Halved My Pay, And I Was Meant To Be… Grateful?’.
- And if you’ve ever been expected to attend a school event in work hours, or daycare and school always rings you rather than your child’s father, you’ll nod your heads at our next instalment ‘The Motherhood Penalty: The Double Standard Is So Unfair: Why Are Mothers Always Treated As The Default Parent?’.
- Next, we saw if three women that we had interviewed could file a personal grievance (an expert said they would likely win them). Hence our story ‘The Motherhood Penalty: What Legal Steps Could You Take If An Employer Mistreats You, What Is The Process, What’s a Personal Grievance… And Could YOU Win?’.
- Next up was the thorny question of parental leave. ‘Our Parental Leave System Is ‘Sexist and Discriminatory’ – So Should Men Get Dedicated Paid Partner Leave?.
- On Suffrage Day, we spoke to Katie Bhreatnach, the new CEO of Global Women NZ: a collaboration of influential women leaders advocating for women’s equity and equality in Aotearoa for improved societal and economic growth.
Champions for Change is Global Women’s collective of leaders, which includes 80+ of the nation’s top executives (CEOs and Chairs) representative of Aotearoa’s private and public sector organisations. and a workforce of more than 170,000 employees. Their vision is to see accessible, progressive and successful employment for everyone everywhere.
So we’re delighted to learn the following.
Champions for Change has just launched a new parental leave framework to strengthen gender equity in workplaces. It establishes a minimum policy standard that all Champion organisations must meet in their parental leave policies, and introduces a ‘stretch journey’ for organisations to aspire to beyond basic compliance.
This framework spans six key areas of parental leave policy that have been shown to play an active role in creatable an equitable working environment for parents. They include additional paid leave for parents; partner leave; larger KiwiSaver contributions; flexible return to work arrangements, wellbeing leave, and parental leave transparency.
Designed to be a best practice, scalable model, the framework enables organisations to tailor and implement policies according to their organisational structure, This mandatory reporting requirement will join gender pay gap reporting commitments, and the existing 40/40/20 gender balance goal (40% of executive leaders must be female, and 40% men, with 20% flexible as to gender).
Carrie Hurihanganui, CEO of Auckland Airport and Co-Chair of Champions for Change says “we know that one of the most significant contributing factors to the gender pay gap is the career and income impact that can follow when women become parents, also known as ‘the motherhood penalty’.”
”Strong, inclusive, parental leave and return to work policies, as well as normalising parental leave for all parents can play a critical role in closing the gender pay gap and help to keep more women in the pipeline towards leadership. Every step businesses take towards strengthening their parental leave policies helps to increase women in the workforce, delivering benefits for both businesses and the economy.”
The framework is the result of a multi-year workstream developed through extensive consultation across the Champions for Change network. This drew on the collective insights and experience of the 50+ member organisations and their leadership teams, their workshops and masterclasses to share insights and learnings across organisations. The framework also drew from a Champions for Change summit for CEOs and Chairs – alongside data insights from Crayon’s register of more than 350 parental leave policies. (Crayon is a Kiwi startup offering resources, tools and programs for employers and parents to reduce the financial stress of parenthood.)
The framework has been presented to The National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women – which advises the government’s Minister For Women – as part of a national conversation around gender equity in the workplace and addressing the motherhood penalty. We hope the government – current and future – are taking notes. And the Champions’ framework will hopefully inspire other organisations.
Btw, we’re not stopping our Motherhood Penalty series anytime soon. Do you have suggestions for the next instalments? Do you want us to go into workplaces to see first-hand what they’re doing to address the Motherhood Penalty? Are you a single mum who thinks you’ve been more disadvantaged by the Motherhood Penalty than women in a couple? Email hello@capsulenz.com!
