MADELAINE BEST, PhD STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF READING, UK; ASSISTANT HEAD, CRANLEIGH SCHOOL, UK
Introduction
In the year 2022 to 2023, nearly 40,000 working-age teachers left the profession. This represented 8.8 per cent of the teaching workforce (DfEDepartment for Education - a ministerial department responsible for children’s services and education in England, 2024). The most significant group of leavers are women aged 30 to 39; existing research suggests that motherhood is a contributing factor towards these women leaving the profession (MTPT Project, 2021; McShane and Sheppard, 2024).
Indeed, teacher-mothers juggle two all-encompassing roles, which both require nurture, self-sacrifice and overwork (Quickfall, 2020). Teaching is less supportive of work–family reconciliation than other similar graduate careers, with the rigidity of the timetable and unsupportive school leadership proving to be notable challenges (Marsh and Derbyshire, 2019; DfE, 2020).
Schools expect ‘full availability and loyalty’(Moreau, 2019, pp. 23, 116). The culture of long hours is partnered with a trend for ‘presenteeism’ and the need to be seen working long hours, and that poses an additional challenge for teacher-parents (Kell, 2016). The Missing Mothers report (McShane and Sheppard, 2024, p. 7) highlighted that ‘many mother-teachers feel forced to choose between their own children and their students due to inflexible work schedules’.
There is a social justice imperative, in addition to a strong business case in terms of retention, to reduce the attrition of teacher-mothers. By better supporting teacher-mothers, schools would be more diverse and inclusive workplaces, as well as helping to lessen the retention crisis in the teaching profession.
Drawing on doctoral research from the University of Reading, this paper explores the experiences of teacher-mothers, specifically those with pre-school-age children, to understand the difficulties that teacher-mothers encounter and the policies that schools can implement to minimise these barriers and promote equity.
Methodology
The methodology used was a mixed-methods study, using 15 qualitative interviews with teacher-mothers and a subsequent quantitative survey with 354 participants. The data generated from the interviews was used to form the basis of the survey. This type of mixed-methods research is useful in providing data reflecting lived experiences, situated in a ‘macro-context’ (Hesse-Biber, 2010, p. 467).
The participants in both phases of the study were teacher-mothers. The inclusionAn approach where a school aims to ensure that all children are educated together, with support for those who require it to access the full curriculum and contribute to and participate in all aspects of school life criteria were that at the time of arranging the interview or completing the survey, they were a teacher working in a UK school who had at least two years’ experience. They also needed to be a mother to at least one child under school age at the time of the interview, who lived with them at least 50 per cent of the time. They needed to have returned from maternity leave (unless they were on maternity leave with a subsequent child) so that they could comment on the return-to-work period. Please note that all participants’ names used in this article are pseudonyms.
Key findings
Unsupported return-to-work period
Findings from the survey data indicate that there is a lack of support reported by teacher-mothers in their first six months returning after leave. Respondents were asked whether their school provided any support, such as a return-to-work meeting, an induction programme, a risk assessment, training or a mentor. In total, 59.7 per cent of the participants selected ‘none of the above’, indicating that teacher-mothers are, in many cases, unsupported when they return to the workplace, not even having a return-to-work meeting with their line manager.
This sense of being unsupported also emerged strongly in the qualitative data. Furthermore, there was a sense among interviewees that there was a lack of reinduction into the workplace. As one interviewee put in, ‘there was no reintroduction… I was just completely, completely kind of thrown in’ (Helen). Similarly, another said ‘there was no what might your needs be’ (Sophie), which she said would have been ‘useful’ given the ‘massive transition that you’re going through’ (Sophie). Melissa was also critical of the lack of support during her return, highlighting that the school ‘just drop you back in and go, right, you’re teaching a full timetable’.
Furthermore, the data from the survey revealed that teacher-mothers’ dissatisfaction with their employer rose sharply during the return-to-work period, increasing from 5.9 per cent before the announcement of their pregnancy to 40.3 per cent in the first six months after leave. A statistical test (a paired-sample t-test) confirmed that this drop in satisfaction was statistically significant with a large effect size.
Alongside the rise in dissatisfaction, teacher-mothers with a pre-school child were more likely to want to leave the profession. A total of 39 per cent of respondents reported being likely to leave the teaching profession, compared to just nine per cent who felt that way before announcing their pregnancy.
When asked what support they would have liked when returning to work from maternity leave, the most frequently chosen option was a summary of system changes and/or training missed while on leave – 74.8 per cent of respondents selected that answer.
Breastfeeding at work
The majority of the 173 breastfeeding mothers in the survey were not provided with breastfeeding support, with 55.5% of breastfeeding mothers saying that they were offered none of the following: a clean private space for expressing milk, access to a fridge to store milk, allocation of additional breaks or flexible working to accommodate breastfeeding needs.
The qualitative data supports these findings. The interviews suggest that the support offered to breastfeeding mothers was variable across schools. One-third of the interviewees had to navigate hostility towards breastfeeding in their workplace, along with minimal support. This, coupled with the inflexible nature of the teaching day, presented an obstacle for teacher-mothers.
For instance, Victoria mentioned that colleagues were expressing milk in ‘little locked cupboards’ and Sophie was in ‘the bathrooms’, indicating a lack of appropriate places for expressing milk. Rachel alluded to the structure of the school day when discussing expressing milk (‘breaktime’, ‘lunchtime’) and there was a sense that the fast-paced and pupil-facing teaching day created an additional challenge, contributing to it feeling ‘absolutely bananas’. She found this period ‘really tough’.
A theme that emerged strongly from the qualitative data was that teacher-mothers desire to see schools being more proactive in their support for breastfeeding mothers. Gemma, who did not have any breastfeeding support in place but knew a colleague who did, articulated this clearly when she stated that schools ‘need to be better at saying to people this is what’s available to you, rather than waiting for women to try and navigate their way through the system’.
Attitudes of school leaders
The attitudes of senior leaders can act as a facilitator or barrier towards women staying in the sector. The findings of this study suggest that some school leaders were actively hostile towards mothers in schools.
This can be seen in the case of Helen, who had been treated differently by the senior management after announcing her first pregnancy, with most of her line management meetings with the head being cancelled with immediate effect. Moreover, she was told by senior leaders that she would have to choose between being a ‘good’ school leader and a ‘good’ mother, and that she wouldn’t be able to do both. Helen’s experiences are very similar to those of Scarlett, who was also told by female senior leaders that teacher-leader-mothers ‘think they can have it all… you just have to make a choice’. Similarly, Rachel explained how a previous school had a culture of presenteeism established by the senior leaders, who had little regard for family life. There was no sense of trusting staff with the flexibility to complete their additional work, which negatively impacted family life. The senior leaders would take a register of staff after lessons to ensure that no one left prior to five o’clock.
The findings that senior leadership can foster negative cultures was further reflected in the results from the quantitative questionnaire. The participants were asked to indicate their levels of happiness with the support from their headteacher during their return to work on a five-point Likert scale; 44.4 per cent of respondents reported feeling ‘not at all happy’ or ‘somewhat unhappy’ with their headteacher.
Conversely, there was an alternative discourse that suggested that role-modelling on leadership was very powerful. Several participants emphasised the positive impact of having senior leaders who are also parents of young children. Melissa noted that when four of nine SLT (senior leadership team) members were mothers, they actively promoted a culture of work–life balance. Victoria described a leadership team where all members had children, creating a supportive environment that prioritised family needs and modelled empathy; she explained that if ‘it’s lived in the senior leadership team, it filters down’. Similarly, Rachel highlighted how her headteacher’s visible commitment to parenting, such as attending her child’s nativity play, helped to normalise motherhood in the workplace and empowered other teacher-mothers to do the same, causing Rachel to think ‘this is something I can also do’.
Discussion
Gendered institutions
Findings of this research reinforce existing studies showing that schools are often not family-friendly workplaces and that teachers face an implicit choice between career progression and motherhood (Moreau, 2019, 2020). Furthermore, the lack of support in place for the majority of mothers returning from maternity leave in this study – and specifically breastfeeding mothers – indicates that an institutional hostility to motherhood exists in many schools, despite teaching being a feminised profession.
These findings align with the work of Acker (1990, 1994), who argues that schools are gendered institutions in which the ideal worker is the disembodied worker, who is gender-neutral, bodiless, has ‘no sexuality, no emotions, and does not procreate’ (Acker, 1990, p. 151). More recent work by Gatrell (2013, p. 623) builds on Acker’s work, as she argues that ‘maternal bodies’ interrupt workplace norms and the ‘images of supposedly controlled and slender professional bodies’. By applying these theories to the context of UK schools, this study shows how teacher-mothers returning from maternity leave in motherhood challenge entrenched workplace expectations and masculine norms.
For genuinely inclusive cultures in schools, eroding these archaic gendered norms is crucial, as is building supportive environments for working parents, particularly at the acute phase when parents first return from leave. As suggested by McShane and Sheppard (2024), men and women should be able to balance their professional and personal responsibilities effectively. Leaders should highlight role models who illustrate this ‘achievable balance’ (McShane and Sheppard, 2024, p. 29) and present teaching as a sustainable career choice.
Evidence-based recommendations
- Have clear breastfeeding practices in place, including designated spaces, ideally formalised in a written policy
- Provide a summary of system changes/training missed to returners, to reduce overwhelm
- Formalise a procedure for reinduction for mothers returning from maternity leave, to include a series of meetings with their line manager
- Offer mentoring and professional development opportunities to ensure that teacher-mothers feel valued
- Senior leaders should avoid advocating for presenteeism and role-model the importance of family time.
Conclusion
This article has explored some of the significant challenges faced by teachers who are also mothers to pre-school-age children in the UK, including the lack of support during the return to work from maternity leave, the challenges of breastfeeding at work and the attitudes of school leaders. The data reveals that teacher-mothers are significantly more likely to be dissatisfied with their employer and to want to leave the teaching profession than before their pregnancy was announced. Addressing these issues is crucial for both social justice and retention purposes, and thus schools should strive to implement more formalised procedures for reinduction and breastfeeding, and use role-modelling to promote teaching as a sustainable career.
