Flexible working for parents returning to work: Maintaining career development.

The ‘gender pay gap’ has been widely reported on and is clearly a very stubborn issue to move. Lots of suggestions are offered, such as the need for more ‘women on boards’, but less is said about what can be done further down the line, before the disparity becomes pronounced. Women who have taken a break for maternity, adoption or caring responsibilities may struggle to retain their career paths but fathers also can pay a ‘parenthood penalty’, forgoing not their careers and salary necessarily, but time spent with their children and families, as evidenced by low uptake by fathers of flexible working arrangements and even paternity leave.Both dimensions are at issue for this research, which was commissioned to consider how organisations are managing flexible working following a return to work after taking an extended period of leave for parental/caring responsibilities, and how organisations are then supporting people who work flexibly to maintain their career development, considering factors which may contribute to the gender pay gap. (Author abstract)