Making flexible working work better for women
Emma Padden (Managing Director)
Making flexible working work better for women
For full clarity, even though I am at the helm of PR Mums I’m not a mum. We tried but it didn’t happen.
For anyone who has been through something similar will know how awful it is. Its highly emotional, pressured, exhausting and stressful to name a few ways it can impact an individual. And frankly, it’s also hard being around other women announcing their pregnancies and witnessing their incredible journey unfold week by week, while I remain monastically silent about my own experience. It’s been a quandary deciding whether I should be honest with my employer and, I never did because I thought (rightly or wrongly) it could impact their perspective of me, my performance, my immediate trajectory. I didn’t even tell close friends because their advice, whilst well intentioned and lovely was oftentimes misplaced. It left me feeling worse and quite lonely. My brain was a minefield, my anxiety was out of control and simple things became overwhelming – even navigating an appointment around work sent me into a meltdown.
My personal experience is just that, my experience. There are so many more women who have been though similar and will know the unique effect it has on them. All said whether you are going through fertility treatment, fertility challenges, miscarriage, pregnancy, are on parental leave, going through the menopause, or even having to take on the responsibility of parental care (which statistically falls to the eldest daughter), the working lives of women take a hit as we age.
The impact is huge. I could list reams of ways it manifests but let’s start with confidence and self-esteem – or rather the lack of it because that can disappear.
Then there is the best part if all – the financial impact. When we are at work, we not only have to fight for fair and equitable pay, but we are also rewarded in later life with a lower pension. A gender pay gap AND a pension gap! It’s the cherry on the cake, especially given women are likely to live longer than men.
If you are on parental leave or have taken a career break for childcare purposes, a return to work can be daunting and destabilising. Seeing your colleagues move on, or up, feeling guilty about working, feeling lost without a former network or unconfident with new and unfamiliar clients. Layer all that with negotiating flexible working hours to help juggle childcare responsibilities. Then you have to ensure you’re earning enough to pay for childcare, which in the UK is currently some of the most expensive in the world. No wonder so many women feel the need to step back from their career for childcare reasons.
Let’s not forget the current stress of the rising cost of living and interest rates. Financially, its testing times for many families.
These are conversations that are being tabled more frequently, which is excellent. And yes, some companies are addressing it by stepping up and embedding excellent ED&I policies and practices that fully support the role of women, as leaders and as parents. Companies who fully support women rising to the top, equitably and equally. They really aren’t ED&I washing. Sadly, these are just exceptions and overall, the PR & Communications industry still has a long way to go.
Furthermore, recent statistics state that the UK PR & Communications industry is approximately 67% female. Yet when it comes to equitable pay and leadership the 33% of the industry that is male holds 47% of leadership positions (Director and above). * Where do the women go?
PR & Communications has a well-documented challenge to keep women in the industry. Female talent is disappearing at mid-senior level and above, for a multitude of reasons, but childcare is a key factor. If only we could make flexible working work better for women.
Surely it would be better to have a stealth employee for three days a week, or five days of reduced hours, versus someone mediocre full time but not delivering. There are countless roles that could be viewed with a different lens to help get women back into a career they love, and back to a trajectory that motivates them.
This is our motivation for PR Mums. We want to work with agencies and businesses to help women (and parents) thrive in this industry, make it easier to be transparent about challenges and not feel judged, to build confidence and have a new lease of life though flexible roles. Whether that is freelance or perm we help find a role that works for our candidate’s needs, and in turn address the imbalance in leadership.
*PRCA PR & Communications Census 2021 references
https://www.vuello.com/uk/olog/prca-shares-its-etnnicity-and-gender-pay-gap-results/