Starting a Family make Men Promoted than Women counterparts

Having children make men 'redouble' their commitment to their job, according to the 30% Club

 

74% fathers have five or more promotions, compared to 65% childless men

Children make a man 'redouble' commitment to his job, report claims

Stereotypically, serves as distraction for mothers choosing to 'have it all'

Many women fear having a family will slow down their career. But it seems fathers needn’t worry - because the opposite is true for them. Men with children are more likely to be promoted in their jobs than any other types of workers, including women with no children and even men with no children, a report revealed yesterday. Continue....

 

Women lag behind whether or not they have children, the report found - with only ‘a marginal but not significant’ difference between the career chances of women with and without. The landmark report is based on the experience of more than 4,600 workers at UK companies, including many FTSE 100 corporate giants.

 

Of senior men with children, 74 per cent have had five or more promotions, compared to only 65 per cent who are childless. The report said having children typically makes a man ‘redouble’ his commitment to his job, while it is stereotypically seen as an unhelpful distraction for mothers.

 

The research, published yesterday by the 30% Club, which campaigns for more women in Britain’s boardrooms, said: ‘For women, care-giving is thought to reduce their commitment to a career.

‘For men, bread-winning is thought to redouble their commitment to a career.

 

‘Choosing to ‘have it all’ is usually framed in problematic terms for women, but rather less so for men.’

Rachel Short, a director of YSC, a firm of business psychologists, said: ‘When men have children, they are suddenly seen as the bread winner, and that they are now really committed to their careers.

‘Other people’s perception of their level of commitment also increases.’

The report, conducted by YSC and the accountants KPMG, insists that it is ‘a myth’ to argue that women’s careers are destroyed by having children.

 

While many women leave the workplace after having children, it said the ones that do return to work are even more likely to be promoted.

 

Caring for children often acts as a distraction for women, and seems to have no bearing on getting promoted

 

 

Of senior women with children, 57 per cent have had five or more promotions, compared to only 51 per cent for childless women. The research only looked at senior and executive women in the workplace, rather than more junior or backroom staff.

 

Ms Short said women have a ‘renewed zeal’ after having children. She said ‘They don’t want to just sit in a back room job and earn their pin money. They want their career to work out and to do really well in it.’ 

 

When asked to look back on when they became mothers, many senior women said they were ‘less concerned about the impact of having children on their careers.’  They said it was more like ‘a pit stop in a grand prix.’

 

But the real issue, which vastly overshadows having or not having children, remains a worker’s gender. Ingrid Waterfield, senior people adviser at KPMG, said: ‘The biggest difference is still whether you are a man or a woman.’ 

 

Overall, 38 per cent of men in the workplace receive five or more promotions compared to 29 per cent of women.