You may not yet be a mother and already suffer the consequences. In a report published on September 9, the High Council for Equality warns of this “maternal penalty” which weakens the careers, income and financial autonomy of women, sometimes well before the birth of the first child.
For the High Council for Equality, the problem is not motherhood itself, but the way in which parenthood remains organized in society. And the consequences can last for years.
The “mother’s ceiling” sometimes begins before pregnancy
No children yet, sometimes even no maternity plans: however, some women can already be perceived as future mothers.
This is one of the findings of the report.From sticky floor to mother’s ceiling”published by the High Council for Equality (HCE). The institution describes a “maternal penalty” which affects salaries, promotions, working hours and career prospects.
This penalty can even be based on maternity simply
anticipated or assumed by the employer. According to the DESPERADO IV study cited by Public Senate, a signal of pregnancy or future parenthood would reduce by approximately 15% chance of obtaining a positive response to an application.
And this mechanism sets in early. INED’s work shows that at age 10, girls perform more domestic tasks than boys. For the HCE, “inequalities are not born with the child”.
Then comes birth, and the dropout can be brutal
Birth constitutes a real tipping point. According to the report, “The birth of a child causes a 40% drop in salary income for mothers..
Working time plays a major role: 23% of mothers take full-time parental leaveagainst only
5% of fathers who stop working.
This professional slowdown can then impact promotions, responsibilities, training, but also retirement and assets.
Because inequality does not stop at the company. In the couple, the HCE evokes the theory of “yogurt pot” : women are more responsible for daily and immediately consumed expenses, while men more often finance durable and heritage goods.
In the long term, this difference can become significant. After a divorce, the median standard of living for women drops by 25%against 7% for men.
“Becoming a mother does not make you less competent”
Faced with these mechanisms, the HCE formulates 45 recommendations. One of the main ones consists of following the professional trajectory of mothers after their return from maternity leave, then three and ten years after birth.
The report also proposes a right to respite and parental relief, as well as a harmonized administrative status for single parents in order to facilitate access to rights.
The objective is also to act much earlier, in particular by deconstructing the stereotypes which assign girls more to domestic and parental tasks.
Because behind the figures, the HCE above all wants to shift the focus: maternity should not be considered an occupational risk.
“Becoming a mother does not make you less competent, less ambitious, nor less available. However, motherhood too often remains treated as a risk, a constraint or a private burden.recalls the institution.
Bérangère Couillard, president of the High Council for Equality, summarizes the issue as follows: “Even before the arrival of the first child, the maternal penalty hits women in their careers as much as in their social and personal lives. Our society must evolve to allow women to break through this motherhood ceiling and be able to have the same chances and the same opportunities in their lives, without having to give up motherhood.”.
The real issue is therefore not to ask women to better reconcile career and motherhood. It is to ensure that
motherhood is no longer, in itself, a barrier to autonomy and equal opportunities.