Do you want to Give Maternity Returners a Voice? Help with our Survey

I’m excited to be launching my first piece of research into the experiences of women returning to work after maternity leave. Can you help us reach more participants by sharing my survey with relevant colleagues, friends and your network?

Written by Dr Emma Waltham | Maternity Returners Expert

I’m passionate about supporting women through the maternity transition because, in my 1:1 work with returning mums, every day I hear what they are experiencing and how challenging this transition is personally and professionally.

New mums are facing barriers when they try to re-engage with work and continue their career development. This is a major factor in women’s lack of participation at senior levels in organisations and a significant contributor to the gender pay gap.

Working mums tell me what they’re experiencing, but that isn’t enough – I want to give them a much louder voice.

I’d like their challenges to be discussed more openly. It’s not enough for me to talk about them, I want society to hear what they have to say from themselves.

I want to bring about faster change, so that we make quicker progress. In highlighting their challenges, we can begin to address them, keeping maternity returners in our talent pipelines, so they stay and thrive.

What do working mums have to say?

I want to give Maternity Returners a much louder voice. Will you help me?

I’d like them to say in their own words how they feel and why. What’s going well and what would they like to see change. What they think they need to be able to successfully re-engage with their careers and be able to thrive.

To get the conversation started, I’m excited to be launching my first piece of research into the experiences of women returning to work after maternity leave.

By working together and listening to those experiences, we can transform the experience of working mums. This will help employers build and sustain strong talent pipelines, broaden gender diversity, increase wellbeing of working mums and prevent skills gaps.

Can you help us reach participants?

Please share my survey with relevant colleagues, friends and your network – people who are pregnant, on maternity leave or those who have babies and toddlers. It should take no more than 15 minutes to complete, and all results will be completely anonymous. The report we produce afterwards will give you insights into the barriers women are facing that are preventing them fully participating at work and give practical recommendations on what organisations can do to help.

You can find the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/maternityreturners2021

Thank you for your support; the research will be published early in the new year and I will be delighted to share it with you.

This article was previously published on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-you-want-give-maternity-returners-voice-help-our-survey-waltham/