Women high-flyers quit to see more of the children

13 April 2012

The pressures of combining family life with a demanding job are forcing increasing numbers of women to abandon successful careers.

Some are giving up six-figure salaries as company directors when they become mothers rather than miss out on precious time with their children.

Others are changing direction because their earnings even as senior managers leave them unable to afford childcare. Many are choosing to set up their own businesses where they can dictate their working hours.

• Meet the women quitting top jobs to stay with their children

The crippling cost of paying for someone to look after the children was blamed yesterday for a fall of nearly 50 per cent in the number of women working as senior managers in big companies.

Over the last five years, the number of women working as senior managers for FTSE 100 companies - the 100 biggest listed on the stock market - has fallen 47 per cent. In 2002, women accounted for 34 per cent of all FTSE 100 senior management jobs. Today, they hold just 18 per cent.

The report, from the accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, says the blame for forcing women out of these jobs lies mainly with the cost of childcare. As senior managers they may have been highly successful in their careers but are still at least one rung of the ladder below director or executive level.

For many women, that means their salaries are not big enough to allow them to keep on working and afford decent childcare after they become mothers.

The arrival of their children acts as a trigger to set up their own business, giving them a chance to be a mother and earn a living.

A record number of women run their own company. Many are mothers who have come to be known as "kitchen table tycoons". For the first time, more than one million women are selfemployed, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Sarah Churchman, head of diversity at PWC, said the report's findings would be "a wake-up call" for big companies.

She added: "They are creating problems for the future. Women are exiting corporate life."

Over the last five years, the cost of childcare has risen 27 per cent, roughly three times inflation.

One of the cheapest options, a fulltime nursery place for a child under two, is £152 a week, according to the Daycare Trust.

The annual gross cost of a nanny is £20,000, or £29,000 in London.

Mrs Churchman said the cost of childcare has to be "a cause" for the huge fall in women in senior management positions.

It is a very different picture for women higher up the career ladder, who are earning much bigger salaries which makes childcares more affordable.

At the senior management level, where their salaries are often completely consumed by their childcare costs, the numbers simply do not add up.

Women returning to senior management jobs after having children can also become frustrated by the lack of flexible working on offer. Many are forced to accept less well-paid jobs lower down the career ladder than the level reached before maternity leave.

A recent report found that high-flying working mothers are refusing to go for the top jobs because they think the price is "too high".

The majority felt that time with their husbands and children was more important than getting to the top of the career ladder.

Co-author Moira Benigson, who runs an executive search firm, said: "When they have kids, they think to themselves: 'How do I balance my life?' and 'Is it worth it?'

"Generally, the answer is No. You have to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and, with a family, that is either not possible or not attractive."

The PWC report found just one per cent of full-time chairmen or chief executives at FTSE 100 companies are women.

The number of women directors fell last year for the first time since records began in 2000, according to Cranfield University's respected "Female FTSE" annual report.

Companies are storing up problems as the "pipeline" of women at senior management level falls.

If the fall continues, there will be fewer and fewer women to pick from when the top jobs become available.

Everywoman, a network for women entrepreneurs, asked some 1,000 women business owners why they had set up on their own.

Co-founder Maxine Benson said: "The number one reason was that they wanted to set their own agenda and dictate their own working hours."

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