Career Break After Motherhood: Why Women Fall Behind and How We Can Fix It
- Renu Sharma
- Sep 3
- 5 min read
They were classmates. Same lectures, same exams, same late-night study groups. They graduated with the same degree and landed jobs in the same campus placement drive. Their starting salaries were almost identical.
For a while, their careers moved in sync. They joined their first jobs together, full of energy, full of ambition, full of dreams of what life could look like.
They fell in love, got married, and for the outside world, it was the perfect story of balance. Same background. Same qualification. Same opportunities. Same start.
But then, life did what life often does: it tilted the playing field.
The husband kept moving ahead—switching jobs when it made sense, negotiating raises, taking bigger roles, climbing the ladder. The wife, equally talented and equally qualified, became a mother. And with that, she stepped away from her career “just for a little while.”
That little while became months, then years. And before anyone realized it, a decade had passed.
Today, he earns 40 LPA. She is still trying to explain the “career break” on her resume.
This story might sound like a neat anecdote, but it’s not fiction. It’s reality for millions of women. The career break after motherhood is one of the most silent but powerful factors behind gender inequality in the workforce.
And if we’re serious about building workplaces that are truly equal, we have to ask: Why does this happen? Why do so many women fall behind after motherhood? And more importantly, how can we fix it?
The Motherhood Penalty: A Career Pause That Lasts Too Long
Let’s start with an uncomfortable truth: the world of work was not designed with mothers in mind.
For men, fatherhood is often seen as a marker of stability. Employers look at fathers as more dependable, more grounded, even more ambitious. There’s actual research on this—fathers often get a “wage bonus” after having kids.
For women, motherhood flips the script. Suddenly, she is seen as less available, less serious about her career, less ambitious—even when none of that is true.
This is called the motherhood penalty, and it’s one of the biggest reasons why a career break after motherhood stretches longer than intended.
Think about it. When a woman announces she’s pregnant, the congratulatory smiles are often followed by a quiet question: “Will she come back?”
Nobody asks the father that.
Why Do Career Breaks After Motherhood Stretch Into Years?
The short answer: it’s not just one reason. It’s a combination of cultural, structural, and personal challenges that pile up until returning to work feels nearly impossible.
1. Lack of Support Systems
Childcare in India (and many parts of the world) is either unaffordable, unavailable, or unreliable. Not every family can afford a nanny, and not every woman has a supportive extended family to step in. Workplaces rarely provide on-site childcare or flexible policies. So, when push comes to shove, the woman steps back.
2. Family Expectations
Let’s be honest—our society still treats child-rearing as a woman’s responsibility. Even in progressive households, the invisible load of parenting falls disproportionately on mothers. School projects, doctor’s appointments, daily routines—all of it adds up. And the career is the first thing to go.
3. Time Becomes the Enemy
Most women don’t intend to stay out of work for long. The plan is often to “get back once the child starts school.” But then something else comes up—second pregnancy, relocation, family illness, lack of flexible opportunities. Before you know it, what was supposed to be one or two years becomes five, then ten.
4. The Confidence Gap
After years away, the workplace feels like a foreign country. New tools, new technologies, new jargon. Even highly competent women start doubting themselves. The confidence gap is not about ability—it’s about perception.
5. Recruiter Bias
When a resume has a “career gap,” most recruiters treat it as a red flag. Instead of asking what skills this person brings, the focus shifts to why she was away. That single line—“10-year career break”—overshadows everything else.
And so, the gap widens.
The Cost of Career Breaks After Motherhood
The personal cost is obvious: women who once had ambitions of leadership end up sidelined, financially dependent, and underutilized.
But the cost is also systemic. When half the population is either pushed out of the workforce or underrepresented in leadership roles, companies lose out on talent, diversity of thought, and innovation.
Economists estimate that India’s GDP could rise significantly if more women participated in the workforce. In simple terms: when women lose out, everyone loses out.
The good news is, none of this is inevitable. A career break after motherhood doesn’t have to mean a permanent derailment. But fixing it requires change at multiple levels—workplaces, policies, families, and culture.
Rethinking Workplaces
Organizations need to stop treating career breaks as career ends. Many global companies have started returnship programs—structured pathways that help professionals re-enter after breaks, with mentorship and upskilling.
Flexible work options—remote roles, hybrid schedules, part-time opportunities—make it possible for mothers to balance both career and family without burning out.
And yes, childcare support matters. On-site crèches, childcare allowances, even partnerships with daycare providers can make all the difference in whether a mother returns or not.
Shifting Mindsets at Home
No policy will matter if households don’t change. Parenting is not a mother’s job; it’s a shared responsibility. When fathers step up equally—school runs, meal preps, late-night wakeups—women get the space to return to their careers without guilt.
For women themselves, re-entry is not just about finding a job; it’s about rebuilding confidence. Upskilling in new tools, attending workshops, networking with peers—all of this helps close the gap. The truth is, skills can be relearned. What really needs repair is the self-belief.
A System That Doesn’t Punish Breaks
Here’s the bigger question: why do we treat breaks as punishments in the first place?
Think about it—career breaks happen for many reasons: caregiving, illness, travel, entrepreneurship. We never say a man is “unemployable” because he took a year off to do an MBA or start a failed startup.
But for women, a career break after motherhood becomes a permanent label.
What if we changed that? What if breaks were normalized as part of a healthy career journey, not something shameful to explain away?
The truth is, motherhood adds skills—multitasking, resilience, empathy, crisis management—that any workplace should value. But instead, we act as though those years didn’t exist.
The Future We Need
Imagine a world where a woman doesn’t have to choose between being a mother and being a professional. Where taking a break doesn’t mean starting from scratch. Where companies judge talent by ability, not by whether someone had a gap in their CV.
That world isn’t a fantasy. It’s possible. But it requires deliberate choices: from organizations, from leaders, from families, and from society.
Because when we fail to create systems for women to return, we’re not just holding back individuals. We’re holding back progress itself.
The story of the boy and the girl who started equal but ended up miles apart isn’t just their story—it’s the story of our workplaces, our policies, our culture.
A career break after motherhood doesn’t have to mean falling behind forever. But until we change how we think, how we hire, and how we support, it will continue to feel like a cliff women fall off while men keep climbing.
It’s time to build systems where a pause is just a pause. Not a full stop.
Because talent doesn’t expire. And ambition doesn’t vanish with motherhood. The only thing that needs to change is the way we see it.
That's what we need. Thanks for sharing.