Zarah ChoudharyUp to 74,000 women every year lose their job as a result of getting pregnant or taking maternity leave – an increase of 37% from 54,000 in 2016.
Research from Pregnant Then Screwed, in partnership with Women In Data, revealed a sharp increase in the number of women who are potentially pushed out of their job when pregnant, during or when returning from maternity leave.
Pregnant Then Screwed surveyed 35,800 parents, then Women In Data extracted a nationally representative sample of 5,870 parents to create its State of the Nation report.
The report found that 12.3% of women are sacked, constructively dismissed or made redundant while pregnant, on maternity leave or within a year of returning from maternity leave.
If scaled up to the general population, this could mean as many as 74,000 women a year are forced to leave their job.
On top of this, half (49.5%) of pregnant women, those on maternity leave, and those returning from maternity leave say they had a negative experience at work.
Of those who had a negative experience, one in five (20.6%) left their employer.
A third (35.9%) of women say they were sidelined or demoted whilst pregnant, on maternity leave, or when they return from maternity leave.
Despite all of this, just 2% of women who experience discrimination raise a tribunal claim.
A law came into force in April 2024 to extend redundancy protections to pregnant women and those returning from maternity leave.
Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said: ‘’We have long suspected things are getting worse, not better.
“Our free advice line is ringing off the hook, it has reached a point where we simply cannot cope with demand.
“To find that 74,000 mothers a year are being pushed out of their job for daring to procreate is not surprising, but it is devastating.
“That’s a woman being pushed out of her job every 7 minutes in the UK for doing something that is part of the human existence.
“In 2016, the coalition government commissioned a report to better understand how widespread pregnancy and maternity discrimination is.
“The report found that things had significantly deteriorated over the previous 10 years.
“Despite committing to repeat the research every 5 years, this has not happened so we have been forced to take matters into our own hands.
“What sort of message does this send to women – that the Government cares so little about this issue that they can’t even be bothered to collect the data.”
To improve the workplace culture, Pregnant Then Screwed asked companies to increase their paternity leave offer, create family friendly workplaces, including advertising jobs as flexible unless there is a good business reason not to, and collect maternity retention data to offer further insight into company behaviour.
Taisiya Merkulova, project lead from Women In Data, said: “Collectively, we need to close the gender gap and remove the challenges women face to achieve equality of opportunities in the workplace and reduce burden of the unspoken ‘tax’ on mothers from additional unpaid labour as carers and in the home.”
