Corporate Maternity: Out of the Closet and Into the Boardroom

By Maureen Clarke, The Blueprint Group

It is surprising that there is so little research about expectant employees given the fact that there has been a sharp rise in women's labour force participation rates in North America.  One U.S. researcher was able to locate just 20 empirical articles on pregnancy and work published in psychology and management journals between 1985 and 2005. 

Women are not only participating in the labour force in greater numbers, the demographic of this group is also shifting.  The participation rate of Alberta of women in the labour force with young children (under the age of six) in 2005 was over 64% and the National average was 71.8% in the same year. Most of these women were in their prime working ages of between 25 and 44 according to the Canadian Economic Observer, June 2006.

The landscape of organizations is changing.  Much of this change is coming on the heels of the introduction of nearly year long employment insurance benefits for working families in Canada.  A common belief among workplace culture is that younger generations in the workforce not only differ from the ones before them but are also seeking a much different work environment.  With this and the rise in the number of working women between the ages of 25 and 44, organizations need to reflect on corporate maternity and maternal employment more openly.

Canadian organizations continue to grapple with meeting the needs of new and expectant parents without making the strategic link between maternity, new parenthood and the resulting impact on retention, absenteeism, productivity, stress related illness and culture.  Additionally, even today there are quiet stereotypes facing pregnant women at work which have been cited in some of the limited research over the years done on this subject. Some of these include:

• § The pregnant employee is no longer committed to her job
• § That a pregnant employee may not return after childbirth
• § That after a woman has had a child, that she is automatically perceived to be less committed to her career (Lyness, 1999).

In a 1991 study of MBA students it was reported that a substantial number had negative views of pregnant employees.  The findings suggested that pregnant employees limit group productivity and that organizations make too many concessions for them (Major, 2005, p.2).  Of these MBA students, 46% said that they would not hire a pregnant woman and 64% said that they would not promote one.  Lastly, in a study done in 1999 it was found that some supervisors give lower evaluations to women who take leaves for child birth (Lyness, 1999). 

These studies give us a limited snapshot of pregnant employees and their possible experiences at work before, during and after pregnancy and the return to work.  Of course, these views are detrimental only to the extent that managers and supervisors act on them.  However, the perception can seem like reality for some pregnant employees and the impact on corporate culture, even with these subtle stereotypes can be damaging to any organization.  So damaging in fact that in the United States, corporate maternity related turnover costs are an average of $480,000 annually in an organization of 500 employees. This is based on an estimated occurrence of maternity in a corporate setting at 3.15% of the employee population, with 50% of the employee population being female and having a birth rate of 4.8% (Crecy, 2005).

It's a Story We Can Relate To

Many of us have been a pregnant employee or have been a spouse, mother, father, sibling, friend or colleague to a pregnant employee. The pregnant working woman can still encounter unique and subtle forms of discrimination as a result of her physical condition.  It's a story we can all relate to in some way or another.  Whether it is taking a "macho maternity" (the practice of a woman working as close as possible to her due date and then returning as soon as possible afterwards) for fear of being perceived as less committed, or returning to a role regardless of whether it provides often needed flexibility, working women invariably feels stressed upon their return to work.  This becomes more prevalent in organizations where the amount of time spent at work is used as criteria to indicate the level of contribution of the employee.  An unsupportive organizational climate negatively affects new mothers views towards their jobs and careers.  In a doctoral thesis by Virginia Major (2004) of the University of Maryland on the subject of Pregnancy in the Workplace, the women studied specifically "..felt they had to reappraise their own career expectations, not because of changes in their own priorities (although this was the case with some) but as a consequence of their employers' policies, practices and attitudes.  The message they received from their organizations was that their contribution was no longer valued and that their loyalty and commitment were in doubt." (p.4) This message adds to the stress of an expectant employee or new working mother who then becomes reluctant to take time off for family responsibilities in an unsupported environment.  The research also shows that contrary to popular belief "..women's own work identities did not change substantially after the birth of a child, rather that how others viewed and reacted to them did" (Major, 2004, p.6).

Beyond Survive – Thrive

As we already know, flexible working arrangements, on-site child care and gradual return have appeared as some solutions to address the decreasing job attrition following childbirth.  But there's much more to it than that.  Research on married and working women found that "..workplace support (including supervisor's support for schedule flexibility) is strongly related to women's organizational commitment." (Lyness, 1999, p.4) Research shows that the happiness and excitement of new parenthood is also coupled with stress and uncertainty.  The Families and Work Institute describes the following as some of the most frequent challenges new parents face:

• 1) Most new parents experience a shortage of time
• 2) Today's jobs consume not only more time but more physical and emotional energy
• 3) Financial worries weigh heavily on many new parents
• 4) Many new parents have to copy with a lack of security and predictability
• 5) Many new parents experience information deficit (Shore, 1998).

A company's corporate culture can be an environment that not only helps employees survive during pregnancy but helps them thrive upon the return to work.  Duxbury, Higgins and Coghill (2003) draw this conclusion in their report titled Voices of Canadians Seeking Work-Life Balance.  They write "Organizations that wish to make it easier for employees to balance competing demands need to focus on the behavior of their managers, the implementation of flexible work arrangements and a supportive culture." (p.74)  Organizations that walk the talk towards engaging employees to take advantage of family responsive benefits play an increasingly important role in the attraction, retention and engagement of employees, in particular women employees who will thrive within these work environments now and in the coming years.  Maternity as a strategic imperative becomes even more relevant and concerning as noted in a recent Harvard Business Review study that found "Seventy-five percent of women who want to rejoin the ranks of the employed manage to do so and that only 5% of highly qualified women looking for on-ramps are interested in rejoining the companies that they left." (Hewlett, 2005, p.25) This implies that women who left their organizations for a leave, may have felt unsupported or underutilized upon their departure thus not returning to the same corporate culture.

Out of the Closet

The nature of the work environment today and the tough challenges today's employers' are faced with strengthen the case for more family responsive policies and practices. The research indicates that corporate culture and the quality of jobs are the driving factors behind effectiveness and employee well-being.  Expectant employees who have more supportive, inclusive work environments are less likely to experience stress resulting in a positive impact on retention, productivity and absenteeism.  The reality of corporate maternity and the impact it has on an organization's overall strategy needs to be brought out of the closet and into the boardrooms of today's organizations in order to remain competitive in the 24-hour global economy.