Women face 'career downgrade' after having children

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Female professionals who wish to continue their career while raising a family often have to resort to lowly part-time jobs where their talents and qualifications are wasted, a wide-ranging study said Wednesday.

The first major study on the impact motherhood on careers found that "a third of female corporate managers slid down the career ladder after having a baby. Two-thirds of that number took clerical positions and moved into lower skill jobs", The Guardian said.

Researchers at Oxford University and the University of East Anglia found that women working in shops, salons and restaurants were more affected by this so-called "hidden brain drain" than teachers or nurses.

Mary Gregory -- an economist at Oxford University and co-author of the...