"It's a big issue in the finance industry globally," says Justin Kyriakou, International Development Manager for the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), an organisation that offers qualifications in practical skills development in accounting and has been operating in Botswana for the past 30 years with over 130,000 members and students worldwide. Approximately two thirds of AAT members and students are female.

"There's a big gender pay gap in the sector because many highly-skilled women often put their careers on hold at middle management level to start a family, and then instead of progressing into senior management roles, either don't return to work or stagnate in their current role."

In Botswana, according to the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap report [2] published in 2018, the average age of women at the birth of their first child is 30-years-old, and an average of 84 days maternity leave is taken. This can have a negative effect on their career.

Leaving to start a family and then staying away from the workplace for long stretches of time makes it very difficult to return. But it has less to do with a person's actual skills than it does with perceptions that permeate the business environment.

In research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology back in 2008 titled Motherhood: A potential source of bias in employment decisions [3], negative expectations in terms of their commitment and dependability was found to be a major driver behind the bias against mothers in the workplace. The findings suggested that motherhood does hinder career advancement and that gender stereotypes are the source of motherhood's negative consequences on career growth.

Kenyan journalist, Kwamboka Ovaro, in an article [4] about gender representation in leadership roles across the continent wrote: "The belief among many Africans that a woman's career should complement - not interfere with - her family responsibilities is a traditional notion of a woman's role that fails to acknowledge the benefits of gender diversity to society."

This is a global issue too. According to research from the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM [5]), women in the workplace worldwide are still expected to shoulder more than 50% of childcare and other family duties, which essentially prevents them from working long hours. But to get promoted, a number of organisations can expect them to be assertive and work long hours. It's a "double whammy" that can be very demotivating, the authors of the study noted.

"Mothers can suffer a lack of support from their employers when they return to their careers, and don't receive enough help to balance their time between work and childcare, or have managers and colleagues who are inflexible with working hours or deadlines," comments Kyriakou.

"At the very worst, the difficulty of getting back into work can make some women leave their jobs entirely. Losing these women could be bad for employers because the business will lose their knowledge and skills and could suffer damage as a result."

For Kyriakou, tackling this issue must come from two places, starting with employers.

"Employers should try to ensure they stay in contact with those who have to take time out of their jobs," he says. "If they are on maternity leave, 'keep in touch' days during that period could be arranged where the new mother can come in to see colleagues and perhaps do some work so that they stay connected to their team and can hit the ground running when they come back full-time."

An organisation which does offer flexible working solutions, AAT recently published a study comparing the productivity of a group of workers who set their own hours or working location against those who are not doing so, and found that the former benefit from feeling happier and less stressed.

Associate Professor Linda Ronnie, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town who participated in the GNAM research agrees [6]
that: "senior managers have the power to exacerbate or relieve the pressure employees are feeling to conform to perceived expectations."

On the other hand, says Kyriakou, the responsibility also falls on the mothers to keep their skills sharp.

"To give yourself the best chance of being able to return to your career after taking time out, it is important to keep on top of your career development, for example through some short training or studying for new qualifications," he says. "It's important to keep learning throughout life, not just for mothers, because technology and society move so fast that those who don't keep learning soon get left behind."

He says that with the renewed effort in Botswana to build the finance industry in the country in trying to diversify its economy, AAT Botswana has seen a steady growth in the number of women enrolling in its courses. And many of them are mothers.

"We see students who have just had babies come to study for our qualifications," he says, "because they are flexible and they can fit the studying around taking care of their babies. And, of course, every business needs an accountant, so there is a lot of scope for women entering the finance industry."

He says that many of the women who have studied with AAT Botswana have gone on to start their own businesses with the skills they acquired. "It
is definitely worth signing up [7]!"