Damning new research has revealed that one in three parents feel forced to quit their job because of the 'motherhood penalty'. For years, working mums and dads have been campaigning for better flexible working policies to help them fulfil unpaid childcare responsibilities, but almost half have had requests for flexible working either denied or only partially approved.
Financial pressures force parents out of work
For many parents, the cost of commuting, which can be as high as £7,000 a year in the South East, coupled with soaring nursery costs of up to £120 a day, make returning to work financially unviable. But once their child starts school and the parent is able to rejoin the workforce, they are already at a serious disadvantage having missed out on pensions, pay rises, promotions and student loan repayments.
Despite the changes to flexible working laws introduced last year, the impact on workplaces appears to have been limited. Research from 2025 found that just 15 percent of employees had adopted flexible working as a direct result of the new legislation, while the vast majority (78 percent) said their working arrangements had remained unchanged.
Personal stories highlight workplace discrimination
For Cambridge event manager Amy Cowan, 47, the difference between supportive and unsupportive employers completely changed the course of her career. After returning from maternity leave following the birth of her first child in 2014, Amy says a change in management transformed a job she had previously loved into one that became impossible to balance with family life.
"When I was pregnant, my manager at the time was caring, flexible and accommodating," she told The Mirror. "I came back after eight months and he'd been replaced. The new manager didn't want to hear anything about my family." Amy said she was expected to monitor emails outside working hours and respond over weekends despite caring for a young child.
"I remember she sent me something at 5pm on a Friday and when I came in on Monday she said I'd not given her any feedback so she'd gone ahead and hired the person. She told me to 'keep up and move fast' - but I can't move fast over a weekend." She left for another company, where she initially found a far more family-friendly culture. But after having her second child in 2018, history repeated itself.
A new manager arrived while Amy was on maternity leave and rejected her request to start work earlier, finish in time for the school run and complete the remainder of her hours in the evening - despite the fact she had already been working that way before her leave. "It was refused, and it was extra infuriating because I was already doing those hours," she said. "I was always flexible because that's my job, but there was no flexibility when I came back."
After returning on reduced hours and reduced pay, Amy eventually resigned and took the leap into freelance work in 2020. "Within six months I was earning more than I did full-time, doing it all flexibly," she said. "I've managed to be at every school play, pick my children up every day and still travel for work. People ask me all the time how I juggle it, but I recognise how lucky I am. I couldn't do it without a supportive partner and family."
Systemic failures in parental leave support
According to recent The LEIA UK Report on the state of parental leave in the UK, the system is failing not because of policy, but because of the way it is carried out. It found that 33 percent of parents receive no structured support when returning from parental leave, while only three percent of organisations properly track outcomes for those employees. Researchers surveyed more than 5,300 employees and HR leaders and concluded that 76 percent of a parent's experience depends entirely on their line manager in what it dubbed a 'manager lottery'.
One in three parents reported leaving a job because their employer failed to meet their needs as a parent, while women were found to be 1.4 times more likely to quit than men due to poor parental support. Nearly half of parents also felt pressured to return from leave earlier than planned, with women more likely to experience that pressure.
Career setbacks and lost opportunities
South London mum Zoe Duce, 38, spent a decade building a successful career in project management, working her way up to a senior position. But after going on maternity leave with her son in August 2021, she says it quickly became clear that her career - as she knew it - was over. Forced to watch on helplessly as her husband's career flourished while she was left a "shell" of her former self, she told The Mirror: "I noticed his career kept going. He was able to meet friends, continue his hobbies, and I knew that's what I wanted to get back to. I wanted to feel like myself again."
"I always felt on the back foot when I returned from maternity leave. You can't even work earlier or if you're working later, you're just catching up because you've had to leave for the nursery pick-up. Everyone is trying to be promoted, get the next thing, and I constantly felt on the back foot rather than excelling. I was very much surviving, not thriving." "When you return from maternity leave, your confidence is on the floor," she said. "The impact of this period can last a lifetime."
When Zoe returned to work, she found that there were no clear guidelines for returning from maternity leave. "I was the only female on the team," she explained. "They were all nice, but they assumed I would know more about returning from maternity leave. In reality, I had no idea because I had never done it before." While she appreciated time alone to spend with her newborn, Zoe said the lack of clear communication left her in an anxious limbo. She said: "You're left with no updates, no one speaking to you so you feel quite out of the loop when you return."
Zoe went on to found parent support platform MoveThru, and said she regularly hears from women who return from maternity leave only to discover more junior colleagues have been promoted above them in positions that they weren't given the opportunity to apply for. Under UK employment law, such practices can be classed as unlawful discrimination. "There are so many cases where you return and someone has been promoted, but you would have loved to have gone for that position," she said. "They come back and it's a completely different manager. Someone more junior than them has been promoted while they've been off, and that doesn't sit well when you return and you didn't even get the opportunity to interview for that position."
Campaigners call for structural change
Joeli Brearley MBE, founder of campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, says many employers continue to misunderstand why women's careers stall after having children. "There are deeply entrenched biases about who is required to do care work," she explained. "We just expect women to prioritise caregiving. We feel their focus should be there, not at work. We don't have that bias in men."
According to Joeli, who felt forced out of her job after falling pregnant 12 years ago, those assumptions often translate into workplace discrimination. In 2013, she was sacked by voicemail the day after she told her boss she was pregnant. She wanted to take the company to court for unfair dismissal, but she pulled out after being told the stress could send her into early labour due to it being a high risk pregnancy. Instead, she set up Pregnant Then Screwed to bring together women who had experienced similar discrimination.
Joeli argues that what is often framed as women "choosing" to step back from work is frequently a response to structural barriers such as unaffordable childcare and inflexible working arrangements. "People say it's a choice, but often those choices are influenced by the structures and the culture in which we live," she said.
The challenge is made worse by childcare demands. Mothers are often forced to take time off for nursery and school illnesses, emergency pick-ups, sports days, parents' evenings and doctor's appointments. The typical school day runs from 8:45am to 3:15pm, making pick ups and drop offs impossible for working parents - particularly those who commute. At the same time, many employers are reducing remote and hybrid working opportunities as mandatory office days come into place.
The LEIA report found that 48 percent of parents had flexible working requests either rejected or only partially approved, despite company policies promising flexibility. But the consequences are not limited to promotions or pay rises. Joeli warns that the impact can affect women's confidence, pensions and long-term financial security for decades. She points to research showing women lose tens of thousands of pounds in earnings in the years after having children, while pension gaps between men and women continue to widen. The findings also suggest workplace experiences are influencing family planning decisions. More than four in 10 women surveyed said parental leave policies affected whether or when they chose to have children.
Legal victories offer hope
But there are encouraging signs that change is on the horizon and women are fighting back - and winning. In 2023, Ms Farzana Yasin, a paralegal, was awarded £19,000 in compensation after a tribunal in Manchester against her former employer found she was discriminated against when being made redundant during her third pregnancy. The Employment Judge said the redundancy process was a "box-ticking exercise" and that the company had not engaged in a meaningful consultation.
In 2024, an employer who described themselves as "family friendly" sacked a pregnant worker after she took three days off sick due to morning sickness. Amy McLaren took Hiflow Property Services to an employment tribunal and won £22,000 in compensation. The tribunal panel heard that directors told the pregnant employee to find another job and said she would need to take holidays to cover any doctor's appointments relating to her pregnancy.
In 2025, a care home receptionist was awarded more than £10,000 after her boss ignored 40 calls from her while she was on maternity leave. Maja Ginter won her case for pregnancy discrimination and unfair dismissal and was awarded more than £10,000 in compensation.
Jane van Zyl, Chief Executive Officer, Working Families, said: "No parent should have to rely on luck to get the support they're entitled to. Employers want to do the right thing, but without clear national standards the system remains too inconsistent. The Government's current review of parental leave is an opportunity to give employers clarity, parents confidence, and turn good practice into standard practice."
