Introduction

The implementation of a statutory right to paid Maternity Leave in the United Kingdom (UK), in 1976 and 1977, following the adoption of the 1975 Employment Protection Act, occurred nearly a century after Maternity Leave rights were first introduced in Germany, and when such leave was already widespread among other industrialised countries. In 1973, when the UK acceded to the (then) European Economic Community (EEC), the original six member states had well-established paid Maternity Leave policies. Indeed, the second wave of leave policies had already begun, with Sweden's introduction of a Parental Leave scheme in 1974, before the UK joined the first wave.

This chapter traces some of the consequences of being a latecomer to leave policy and of the decisions made when the UK did eventually get round to implementing such policy. It also considers how and why a later attempt at reform failed, leaving the UK today still with a maternalist leave policy centred on a long, low-paid Maternity Leave. As such, it is a story of how difficult it can be to turn off a policy pathway once that has become established.

Background: the emergence of a maternalist leave policy

A latecomer to leave policy

Since the end of the Second World War, when women had played a major role in the wartime economy, successive UK governments had opposed mothers going out to work and, more generally, declined to provide support for employed carers. Even after its late adoption of Maternity Leave, in 1975 with implementation in 1976 and 1977, the UK's approach was very different to other European countries. Whereas Maternity Leave in the six original member states of the EEC ran from 12 to 14 weeks (except for Italy, where it was 20 weeks), the UK's new legislation went for 40 weeks, with up to 29 weeks available after birth; and while the full period of leave in the former countries was paid at a high level of earnings replacement, in the UK only six weeks was highly paid (at 90 per cent of earnings), the remainder being paid at a low flat-rate (12 weeks) or unpaid (22 weeks).