In 2021 we:
Two days after she informed her employer that she was pregnant with her first child, Joeli Brearley was sacked from her job by voicemail. She was four months pregnant and unemployed with bills to pay. Joeli considered taking legal action but then found out she was having a high-risk pregnancy and could go into labour at any moment. Her career and confidence were at rock-bottom and the health of her baby was in jeopardy.
Realising that her experience was not unique, Joeli launched Pregnant Then Screwed on International Women’s Day in 2015, as a space for mothers to share their stories of discrimination. The project quickly grew and today Pregnant Then Screwed is a charity dedicated to ending the motherhood penalty, supporting tens of thousands of women each year, and successfully campaigning for change.
We believe in a world where women are not judged for the contents of their womb, or the hours they work, or the fact that they have porridge in their hair and smell of Sudocrem, but for their skills and talents. We believe in a world where stay-at-home parents are valued for their contribution to society. We believe in a world where both parents are encouraged to spend time with their children. We believe in a world where childcare is free and is the best it can possibly be for all children and all those who care for our children. We believe in a world where both parents contribute equally to the running of a household whilst achieving their own ambitions. We believe that mothers deserve better and we believe that if we work together we can, and we will, create change.
54,000 women a year lose their job simply for getting pregnant. In addition, 390,000 working mums experience negative and potentially discriminatory treatment at work each year. These numbers almost doubled in a decade. Far from improving, the situation for working mums is rapidly deteriorating.
Pregnant women and new mums have limited access to justice, demonstrated by the fact that fewer than 1% of victims take legal action against a discriminatory employer. Discrimination has a negative impact on a woman’s confidence, her mental health and her earning potential and it is a direct contributor to the gender pay gap. In addition to pregnancy and maternity discrimination, women encounter a multitude of barriers when trying to have children and a career including being reliant on one of the world’s most expensive, dysfunctional childcare systems and a lack of access to good quality flexible working. We know that by the time a woman’s first child is 12 years old , her pay is 33% less per hour than a mans.
-Propose legislative change that will foster greater parity between men and women, both in the home and the workplace
-Support pregnant women and mothers to access free legal advice as well as supporting them to challenge discrimination and to take legal action against an employer
-Document the real stories of working mothers and collect data about their experiences to share with academics, the media and MPs
-Contribute to government consultations and policy-making
-Provide training to employers to help them make their workplace the best it can be for working parents
-Use our platform, media presence and large social media following to talk publicly about ending the motherhood penalty
-Work to rebuild the confidence of mothers and support them to find work that works for them
Pregnant Then Screwed has a diverse funding model which includes grants from trusts and foundations, donations from individuals, events, project-based work with organisations, delivering workshops and training programmes for employers, and sometimes we also sell merchandise.
We became a registered charity in March 2020 and in accordance with our legal obligations, all future annual trustee reports and accounts will be available on this website once published.
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