Companies are also thinking about extending their family-related policies beyond parental leave. Neiman Marcus Group’s family leave policy covers bereavement, and the company will also cover the cost of travel for medical procedures such as abortions. Galeries Lafayette has policies to support employees going through miscarriages, gender transition and single parents dealing with family tensions, and Hermès has similar policies to long illnesses such as cancer, burnout, bereavement, domestic violence and addiction. Tapestry offers discounted caregiving for children, adults or older relatives and resources to find elder care, pet care and housekeeping.
Reintegrating after maternity leave
The offer of flexibility and career coaching can be hugely helpful to working parents reintegrating after leave, Owings of BCG says. In Hugo Boss’s German teams, new parents are assigned a personal HR manager upon return, while in the US its return to work transition programme offers flexibility to work two days in the office for the first month. Moncler Group offers flexibility and remote work options as well as additional paid leave options for the first three years of a child’s life.
According to McKinsey’s 2023 Women in the Workplace report (which surveyed over 27,000 women working in corporate Canada and the US including 270 senior HR leaders), women are more ambitious in their careers than before the pandemic, and improved workplace flexibility is powering their career aspirations. More than half (57 per cent) of mothers of young children said they would have to leave their company or reduce their work hours if flexibility was not offered.
“Covid has really helped working mums prove that you can work flexibly, work from home and actually get the work done. Suddenly, [hybrid working] wasn’t about mums anymore, everyone was doing it,” says Lydia Steele, SVP of fashion at Purple PR’s London office, who has three children.
But double standards persist. Marta Marques, who runs Marques Almeida with her husband Paulo Almeida and has two young children, says, “I had to struggle with my positioning within the business and the industry versus my male partner, who is a participative and hands-on dad, but was never the one having to physically stop and be physically changed and limited,” she says. “We were very much side-by-side equals and perceived as such in the industry, [but that] perhaps shifted without us noticing.”
“I can’t tell you how many times someone’s said to me, ‘You’re so lucky your husband lets you travel’. I don’t think they’d be saying that if it was my husband travelling,” says Liane Wiggins, a London-based luxury brand consultant, formerly head of womenswear buying at Matches.
The motherhood penalty
Childcare costs are a huge source of stress, working mothers told us. “We had to think about how many days we’d put [my daughter] in nursery because we’d be spending money, and I would have to be earning that money in order to justify putting her in nursery that day,” says London-based personal stylist and wardrobe organiser Pooja Adam.