Parental leave policies become birth control for female executive leaders!

From a young age we were told we need to work hard to succeed in life, that we "should" go to University or tafe to build a solid foundation for ourselves and when we can, we should get into the property market to set ourselves up for the future.

"Yes ma’am"... that’s exactly what I did! As the years post University progressed, I worked extremely hard to successfully secure leadership roles in various corporate businesses.

During those seventeen years in the corporate world, I witnessed several females being forced (or some might say "gently nudged") to take a backseat in their career once becoming a mum, with the prospects of a promotion significantly reducing as they entered matrescence.

That was my first experience of “corporate birth control”. With this insight, I strategically aimed to obtain a senior leadership role before embarking on what can prove for many to be a long and painful journey to having a successful pregnancy. I longed to become a mum, however I did not want to jeopardise my prospects of success, so becoming a mum was put on the backburner.

To be clear, please understand, I’m extremely grateful that I was able to create a financially secure future for my family. My point is that it did come at a great cost. This financially secure, successful future is never a guarantee. There are often many challenges working in male dominated industries, not to mention the personal sacrifice and mental health implications of working in high pressure environments (my own set of circumstances, which are beyond the scope of this article, but worth mentioning given how universal I believe these themes to be) . Corporate travel, conferences and boardroom antics are definitely NOT glamorous. Despite our brave faces, behind the confidence is oftentimes someone who’s forgotten who they are and remains trapped by the hold the corporate world has on us, and our ego, under the guise of financial security.

Fast forward 17 years; after various leadership roles, a broken marriage and re-partnering, my biological clock was ticking and I knew it was time to release the corporate hold and try for a family. However the BIG question was "do we have enough savings to cover the shortfall in earnings for my parental leave?".

Being the main breadwinner in our family, this put significant financial pressure on our family. Not only literally saving for years to become a mum but also the need to create a very detailed and calculated plan in order to know how much time I could comfortably take off without placing additional financial stress on us. The focus remaining on the financial side of things, not how much time I would want or like to spend with our new baby.

What I didn't realize at that point was that the Government's parental leave policies, which placed further ‘birth control’ on female executives, as those earning an individual adjusted taxable income of more than $150,000 are excluded from the Australian Government Parental Leave Pay Scheme.

Is it no wonder that, per the Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2020-21 Data snapshot, women make up less than 20% of CEO's as even if a women stands out against male counterparts, how could a household account for the significant loss of income during parental leave, when current legislation also does not require employers to offer paid parental leave.

You might say "what about the Executive males that take parental leave... shouldn't they also be entitled to the Government's paid parental leave?"... 100% they should be! Becoming a parent doesn’t mean that our expenses suddenly reduce. If anything, the opposite is true.

Parenthood quite often brings about additional expenses with medical appointments, all those soiled nappies that us parents just LOVE (not!), and that’s without taking into consideration that one in five of us new mothers and one in ten new fathers experience perinatal depression and anxiety.

Soon after having Indie, I was diagnosed with Perinatal Depression and Anxiety and not only did that have a HUGE mental, physical, and emotional strain on our family, we then had to find thousands of dollars so that I could get the support I needed to function and look after my baby.

As an indication of costs associated with the PNDA I’ve experienced; since last July I have spent over $13,000 in medical, specialist and anxiety support services. 

This does not include any loss of income from having to be on income protection due to mental health challenges and not accumulating superannuation, as I’ve experienced. Executive Leaders are expected to cover for their own loss of income over their parental leave period or hope that employers have a generous employer paid parental leave policy.

I know and appreciate that every woman who embarks on the journey of motherhood faces challenges and some face unimaginable financial strain.

My own journey into motherhood, and in particular the moving away from an ego led way of life has been eye opening. This is why I have committed to support mums everywhere, including those less fortunate, as well as the charities working so extremely hard to support our community, by having a strong charity arm to my business, Mumma Life is now, with serious consideration of setting it up as an accredited Social Enterprise.

My vision is for my business to be accredited as a Social Enterprise that gives a significant proportion of profits back to help bring about much needed change and empowerment in the community.

My journey has taught me that material possessions do not equal happiness. There is more than enough abundance in the world to be shared amongst us all and kindness is what truly matters. It could be smiling or saying hello to a stranger, offering a helping hand to someone who is physically struggling or asking a work colleague if they’re ok when you notice a change in their mood. I now know more than ever to never underestimate the power of kindness and how much a kind gesture could change someone's state of mind.

Back to the purpose of this article... to give rise to the gender equality gap that still exists in supporting the growth in numbers of female leaders, as becoming a mum can be cost prohibitive for many female executive leaders, especially as the current Australian Government Paid Parental leave scheme does not financially support those earning executive level salaries.

Labor Government, It's time is NOW to break the bias in the gender equality gap!

Tammy Hewitt

Founder of Mumma Life is NOW and Creator of Kick Fear in the Butt

Recovered Ego driven Human

#BreakTheBias