Pregnancy and maternity: parents’ workplace experiences

Pregnancy and early parenthood represent a significant period of change in people’s working lives. Over the past decade, employment rights and family-related protections have expanded across the United Kingdom (UK), including stronger parental leave entitlements, enhanced redundancy protections, and wider workplace rights introduced through recent legislative reforms. The former Department for Business and Trade (DBT) commissioned this study to build a clearer understanding of how discrimination or unfair treatment manifests today across Great Britain, how employees and employers navigate their rights and responsibilities, and what this means for future policy and practice.

Research aims
This research aims to inform policy decisions to improve job security, workplace practice and employer awareness of their responsibilities towards pregnant women and parents in the workplace. It examines when, where and how pregnancy and parental-leave related unfair treatment occurs, and assesses the prevalence, patterns and awareness of rights across pregnancy, Maternity Leave and other parental leave types such as Shared Parental Leave, Adoption Leave and Neonatal Care Leave.

Research questions

1. Extent and patterns of unfair treatment across leave types: What are the trends over time, sector differences and disparities across demographic groups, including dismissal, redundancy or feeling pushed to leave?
2. Timing of discrimination: When does unfair treatment occur across stages of pregnancy, leave and return to work?
3. Employer justifications: What reasons are given for dismissal, and how are these defended?
4. How discrimination manifests: The ways unfair treatment appears in workplace practice.
5. Awareness of Rights: How well do pregnant women and mothers understand their rights and the contributing factors to unfair treatment?
6. Employer Responsibilities: How well do employers understand and act on their obligations?

Methodology

This research used a mixed-methods approach comprising of five strands. These were:

1. Literature review of 21 papers published after 2016 building on the study by Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
2. Qualitative interviews with 22 mothers and two fathers who perceived facing pregnancy/ parental leave related discrimination or unfair treatment in employment in last three years.
3. Qualitative interviews with nine employers, including six large (with 250 or more employees), one medium, and two small employers (with 49 or less employees).
4. Secondary data analysis of publicly available datasets on labour market statistics, early reconciliation and employment tribunal claims between 2014 and 2024 where available.
5. Artificial Intelligence-powered analysis of select Employment Tribunal case decisions.

Primary qualitative fieldwork and the analysis of secondary datasets were conducted between September 2025 and November 2025. The findings were triangulated and are presented in five chapters to answer the research questions.