Employment Law Blog

The delicate balancing act between career and motherhood is back in the spotlight with Sarah Jessica Parker’s new film “I Don’t Know How She Does It” released today. It documents the trials and tribulations of Kate Reddy, a fund manager with two small children, who, in the end, sadly found that she could not “have it all”. She gives up her career and moves to the country for the sake of her children whom she rarely saw and to save her relationship with her husband.The question is how much has changed since Allison Pearson wrote the book nearly a decade ago upon which the film is based. Is it more possible now to successfully combine career and family? I think it is, even in the City. However, women need to think carefully about their career choice early on if they want to have children and choose their employer, not to mention their partner carefully, if they want to avoid Kate's experience.

David Cameron’s strategy director Steve Hilton reportedly suggested that the solution to the economic crisis is to abolish maternity leave. He believes this will cut red tape and kick start the economy. This is less “blue sky thinking” and more “living in cloud cuckoo land”.

Yesterday I attended a fascinating debate at the TUC. It was chaired by Louisa Peacock at the Daily/Sunday Telegraph and the two principle speakers were David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, and Brendan Barber, the TUC General Secretary, alongside Jo Lloyd, non-executive director of a small to medium size marketing company (Z Cards), and Siobhan Endean of the Union Unite.

Ian Duncan-Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, stoked the coals of controversy recently by urging employers in the UK to “give our young people a chance, and not fall back on labour from abroad”. The issue is still a hot potato four years after Gordon Brown’s ill-fated campaign in 2007 to create “British jobs for British workers”.