About Pregnant Then Screwed

Our Impact

➡️In October 2022 we organised the March of the Mummies, a national protest where 15,000 parents marched across 11 cities in the UK to demand Government reform of childcare, flexible working and parental leave. The march has been credited with triggering a national conversation about how the system is failing parents

➡️In 2022 our work was mentioned in Parliament every 10 days

➡️We secured £1.3 million for the women we support

➡️We provided 70,000 women with free legal advice and support

➡️Take a look at our Annual Report 2022 – seriously it took ages to write!

➡️In 2021 we took the Government to court for indirect sex discrimination due to the way the self-employed income support scheme had been calculated. In the Court of Appeal we won and proved that the scheme discriminated against mothers in the way it was calculated

➡️During the pandemic we successfully campaigned for:

– Childcare bubbles
– Excluding under 5s from the rule of 2 people meeting
– A grant for parents on low incomes who were forced to stay at home if their child contracted Covid
– The prioritisation of pregnant women for the covid vaccine
– Partners to be given access to pregnancy scans and labour wards

Join us!

Alt text: The Pregnant Then Screwed team laughing together in front of a brick wall

Our History

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.

Image description: photo of pregnant woman with the words

We Believe

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.

The Problem

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.

The Solution

To tackle the root causes of maternity discrimination and promote the rights of women, we:

-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

Alt text: Joeli Brearley shouting into megaphone at Pregnant Then Screwed March of The Mummies Protest

How is Pregnant Then Screwed funded and what are the costs?

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.

Our Strategy

Our strategy

Our Strategy

About Pregnant Then Screwed

Our Impact

Meet The Team

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