IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v19y2005i2p327-348.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Returning to work after maternity leave

Author

Listed:
  • Barbara Davey

    (King’s College, London University, UK, barbara.davey@kcl.ac.uk)

  • Trevor Murrells

    (King’s College, London University, UK, trevor.murrells@kcl.ac.uk)

  • Sarah Robinson

    (King’s College, London University, UK, sarah.robinson@kcl.ac.uk)

Abstract

In the UK, the implementation of flexible working is seen as a key strategy in retention of nurses in the National Health Service (NHS) once they have children. However, Preference Theory argues that the majority of women returners are driven by motivations other than career or work, and that part-time workers are not as committed as full-timers, a perception held by some managers in the NHS. This article examines the motivations of 112 nurse returners after their first child, the differences between nurses returning part time or full time and between nurses preferring to work full time, part time or not at all.The findings suggest that neither hours worked nor preferred hours are good indicators of whether nurses are committed to work or a career, except for respondents who prefer not to work. The main differences are between nurses who would prefer not to work and all others.The findings that nurses returning part time at their preferred hours are motivated by their work and career challenge the view that they are not committed.The policy implications point to the importance of NHS organizations providing both flexible working and flexible career and training opportunities to retain returners’ commitment to nursing.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbara Davey & Trevor Murrells & Sarah Robinson, 2005. "Returning to work after maternity leave," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(2), pages 327-348, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:19:y:2005:i:2:p:327-348
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017005053176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017005053176
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017005053176?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gillian Marks & Diane M. Houston, 2002. "Attitudes Towards Work and Motherhood Held by Working and Non-working Mothers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(3), pages 523-536, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew Jenkins, 2004. "Women, Lifelong Learning and Employment," CEE Discussion Papers 0039, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    2. Ann Berrington & Yongjian Hu & Peter W. F. Smith & Patrick Sturgis, 2008. "A graphical chain model for reciprocal relationships between women's gender role attitudes and labour force participation," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 171(1), pages 89-108, January.
    3. Andrew Jenkins, 2006. "Women, lifelong learning and transitions into employment," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(2), pages 309-328, June.
    4. Ma, Emily & Kim, Misun (Sunny) & Yang, Wan & Wu, Laurie & Xu, Shi (Tracy), 2022. "On the bright side of motherhood—A mixed method enquiry," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    5. Agnieszka Piasna & Anke Plagnol, 2018. "Women’s Job Quality Across Family Life Stages: An Analysis of Female Employees Across 27 European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 1065-1084, October.
    6. Jenkins, Andrew, 2004. "Women, lifelong learning and employment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19467, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Jan Dirk Vlasblom & Joop Schippers, 2006. "Changing dynamics in female employment around childbirth," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(2), pages 329-347, June.
    8. Rosslyn Reed & Margaret Allen, 2003. "‘I Mean, You Want to be There for Them’: Young Australian Professionals Negotiating Careers in a Gendered World," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(4), pages 519-536, December.
    9. Peter Nolan, 2003. "Reconnecting with History: The ESRC Future of Work Programme," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 17(3), pages 473-480, September.
    10. repec:aia:aiaswp:119 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Monika Sieverding & Constanze Eib & Andreas B Neubauer & Thomas Stahl, 2018. "Can lifestyle preferences help explain the persistent gender gap in academia? The “mothers work less” hypothesis supported for German but not for U.S. early career researchers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, August.
    12. Sarah Irwin, 2004. "Attitudes, Care and Commitment: Pattern and Process," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 9(3), pages 18-33, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:19:y:2005:i:2:p:327-348. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.