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Length isn’t everything

Workplaces aren’t doing enough to support the women who take leave after they return (Collings par. 1). Simply lengthening maternity leave does not work towards promoting a woman’s career, for this to happen, two steps need to be made along with the lengthening of a woman’s career.

Step 1: Add a program to keep women up to date while they are gone

While women are on leave, they often lose connection with their workplace, especially as it progresses and new changes come about. This lost connection causes the workplace to see the mother as less devoted to her work. This effect could be lessened if Human Resources set up a mentoring program that connects a high performing worker with experience to a high performing new parent. This mentor would be in charge of updating the mother on leave about the new happenings at work and what is happening with the parents clients. Harvard Business review claims that this model will help to maintain the mothers reputation of hard work in her workplace as she is in the know on what is happening at work (Hideg par. 8).

Step 2: Give women who take leave extra support on their work with the board

A study conducted by Harvard business review published in the Journal of Applied Psychology shows that the length of a womens maternity leave is seen as a comment on her work ethic and devotion to her work (Hideg par. 6). The longer the leave the less devoted the woman is. This reputation of low devotion can work against a woman’s progression in her career. This could be easily fixed if managers were to write extra material that supports the devotion and work ethic of the new mother. This material would help support the mother in the eyes of decision-makers and co-workers.

Supporting mothers will increase gender equality in the workplace

Maternity leaves as they stand promote men in the workplace and leave women behind. Increasing support for returning mothers will help to balance the gender inequality in the workplace.