Agree with you about being the other side and the value it brings. As an exec coach, it's a key part of our ongoing training to have coaching ourselves and it does bring insight and empathy to the fore, I agree. Best of luck with your tour xx
Your comment, "I do tend to like anything that scares me a bit, is exhilarating and keeps me sharp" made me reflect on this being true of me too (at least before life went a bit off course, just getting back now). Like you I had endometriosis, and I always felt quite bullish about it (if I'm going to feel this crap anyway I might as well push the boundaries!). Good luck with being an interviewee, I'm a qualitative researcher, and often get lovely feedback from the people I interview and focus groups i moderate, but I haven't had the experience of being on the other side (and I'd like to).
I heard you interviewing many times when you presented Woman's Hour and after one particularly effective (it was a health minister on women's health issues) I thought it only a matter of time before you were on the Today programme - and so it came to pass.
On maternity leave : the NHS is the largest employer in Europe so it is the organisation that should get maternity leave absolutely right. I think it does a reasonable job but I think it could do more on retaining staff who need to keep their skill set and registration up to date whilst dealing with child care and career breaks. My own field was General Practice and given the proportion of medical graduates who are women these days, maternity leave, childcare support, retainer and returner schemes are crucial to maximise the workforce and to not lose the opportunity cost of all that training and experience.
The most underreported issue is the period just after maternity leave. Will part time be offered? Will she have to resign? If so will she ever get good work or even any work which is part time again? How much of a drop will there be? Not just the pro rata effect but the hidden part-time penalty on the pay-check, which goes down rather than up, and never takes inflation into account.
Young women are oblivious to this period too. It doesn’t get the attention it deserves despite it affecting so much of the population.
That is why it irritates me that so much airtime is spent on both sides - both polarised sides arguing about the issue of what constitutes a biological woman.
Whatever you think about that, it is unlikely to affect the economy much and less likely to affect most of the population. But the issue about time after mat leave is so much more relevant to most people. Not just for women, but also for most families in the country and the economy.
Women with young children also still face more discrimination in the workplace when applying for work after having children than most men face, whatever their sexuality, particularly white men without a disability. They also face much more than women who don’t have children, but it gets washed over and ignored because younger women or women who don’t take on caring responsibilities (whether through choice or not) are generally treated so much better now.
Critically we are also losing so much tax as a county and wasting so much talent all because older women can’t get part time work. Our economy can’t afford to be treating women with kids as badly and short-sightedly as it keeps doing.
So curious to know more about what you thought of the ‘breadwinner’ question from the Sunday times journalist.
Agree with you about being the other side and the value it brings. As an exec coach, it's a key part of our ongoing training to have coaching ourselves and it does bring insight and empathy to the fore, I agree. Best of luck with your tour xx
Your comment, "I do tend to like anything that scares me a bit, is exhilarating and keeps me sharp" made me reflect on this being true of me too (at least before life went a bit off course, just getting back now). Like you I had endometriosis, and I always felt quite bullish about it (if I'm going to feel this crap anyway I might as well push the boundaries!). Good luck with being an interviewee, I'm a qualitative researcher, and often get lovely feedback from the people I interview and focus groups i moderate, but I haven't had the experience of being on the other side (and I'd like to).
I heard you interviewing many times when you presented Woman's Hour and after one particularly effective (it was a health minister on women's health issues) I thought it only a matter of time before you were on the Today programme - and so it came to pass.
On maternity leave : the NHS is the largest employer in Europe so it is the organisation that should get maternity leave absolutely right. I think it does a reasonable job but I think it could do more on retaining staff who need to keep their skill set and registration up to date whilst dealing with child care and career breaks. My own field was General Practice and given the proportion of medical graduates who are women these days, maternity leave, childcare support, retainer and returner schemes are crucial to maximise the workforce and to not lose the opportunity cost of all that training and experience.
The most underreported issue is the period just after maternity leave. Will part time be offered? Will she have to resign? If so will she ever get good work or even any work which is part time again? How much of a drop will there be? Not just the pro rata effect but the hidden part-time penalty on the pay-check, which goes down rather than up, and never takes inflation into account.
Young women are oblivious to this period too. It doesn’t get the attention it deserves despite it affecting so much of the population.
That is why it irritates me that so much airtime is spent on both sides - both polarised sides arguing about the issue of what constitutes a biological woman.
Whatever you think about that, it is unlikely to affect the economy much and less likely to affect most of the population. But the issue about time after mat leave is so much more relevant to most people. Not just for women, but also for most families in the country and the economy.
Women with young children also still face more discrimination in the workplace when applying for work after having children than most men face, whatever their sexuality, particularly white men without a disability. They also face much more than women who don’t have children, but it gets washed over and ignored because younger women or women who don’t take on caring responsibilities (whether through choice or not) are generally treated so much better now.
Critically we are also losing so much tax as a county and wasting so much talent all because older women can’t get part time work. Our economy can’t afford to be treating women with kids as badly and short-sightedly as it keeps doing.