Briefing from Understanding Society and Coram Family and Childcare
We know that employment rates of mothers in the UK are much lower than those of fathers or women without dependent children. For some women, this difference is down to personal choice, but difficulties in finding affordable childcare or making work pay may also be affecting the decisions women make about returning to work.
To delve deeper into this issue we combined data from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, with data held by Coram Family and Childcare on local childcare prices. We looked at women in the UK from the year before they had a baby to up to three years afterwards to investigate what could be influencing their choices about paid work.
Research by Coram Family and Childcare
Our research and advocacy focuses on making Britain as supportive of fulfilling family lives as possible, and on holding central and local government to account for doing all it can to remove barriers for families.
Explore our research