One area where women still struggle is returning from having children, and trying to juggle work with childcare. There are real world studies that have shown that the “motherhood penalty” does exist for women.
“When we start to look at it, women don’t catch up to the male colleagues usually. And so over a period of time, you wear the motherhood penalty, and we can start to see this in our KiwiSaver data,” Cribb said.
“The Retirement Commission has done amazing work, where [women are] retiring, with 20, 30% less than somebody who’d done a similar job. And now that makes huge differences in our, we have huge differences in our life choices, right?
“So yes, it’s very clear. It’s very well researched, it’s very evidence based, and I think most of us who’ve been through it know and have experienced it.”
A lot of that comes from women returning part-time, and facing a “penalty” for shared work.
Cribb said that, rather than seeing part-time workers as some kind of deterrent, it’s something people should seek out as employers.
“When I was at the Ministry for Women, I sought out women who wanted to work part-time because I think they would just come in laser focused [and] perform.
“They’re amazing. So rather than seeing part-time as something negative, I went searching for it and we just created an organisation.”
She also believes that employees should look more at middle aged women as employees and what skills they bring to the workplace - rather than seeing them as invisible, they should be seen as “the perfect employees”.
“We get to the point where you really are very focused on what you care about. You do care less about what people think.
“You’ve got a certain amount of time left on the planet, you want to make the difference in the area and you actually become more determined and more discerning.
“I’d like to throw a little bit of perimenopause and menopause in there, which can give you a nice little edge. I sometimes think it’s, I wish I had that when I was 20, you know, that edge, and you stop sort of being the nice girl.
“So in some ways, I think we should be a superpower.”
Cribb does think that it would help to be more honest about what comes from being a mother and being part of the paid workforce.
“One of my roles was the Deputy Children’s Commissioner, a role I loved, doing some work on child poverty, and we were briefing the Prime Minister in a very small room in Parliament, and I was (sitting) quite close to him.
“And then I walked out and I’d missed a call from daycare. I had to go and pick the kids up because both of them were riddled in nits. And so was I. And I probably gave nits to the prime minister and his advisors,” Cribb laughed.
“I’m sorry, Sir John Key, if you wondered where they came from, in the course of your meeting, it was probably me, I’ll confess now.”
Listen to the full episode of The Little Things for more on how women can negotiate for better pay, what skills they can bring to jobs, and tips for changing careers.
The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series is hosted by broadcaster Francesca Rudkin and health researcher Louise Ayrey. New episodes are available every Saturday.
