Motherhood takes toll on professional talent: Study

Now, a new study has found that the fair sex also pay a price for starting a family -- by slipping down the career ladder.

Researchers in Britain have found that professional women, who work part-time after a baby, end up wasting their talents and qualifications in lesser roles as they can only find employment well below their skill levels, ‘The Guardian’ reported on Wednesday.

“The ‘one-and-a-half breadwinner’ model is not doing well by the more highly qualified among Britain’s mothers. At present, the low quality of many part-time jobs means that women are paying the price of reconciling work and family,” according to the study’s lead author Prof Mary Gregory.

In their study of 70,000 working mothers, the researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of East Anglia found that a third of female corporate managers moved down the career ladder after motherhood.

Two-thirds of them took up clerical positions and the rest moved into other lower skill jobs.

Moreover, women managers of shops, salons and hotels were found to be more affected by occupational downgrading -- almost half gave up their managerial positions to become sales assistants, hairdressers or similar roles when they sought part-time jobs after having a baby.

“This loss of career status with part-time work is a stark failure among otherwise encouraging trends for women’s advancement. Girls and young women are outperforming males at all educational levels. They are moving into an expanding range of occupations, and building successful careers.

“The gender pay gap is narrowing. But for many all this comes to an abrupt halt when childcare claims part of the working week,” Prof Gregory of the Oxford University said.