“THIS is why we hire men.” That was the devastating blow delivered to Lo Constantinou, founder of Warrington-based employability support platform Good Copy, when she was managed out of her old job on maternity leave.
Her experience of maternity discrimination is sadly the reality facing 54,000 working women across the UK each year according to a recent government consultation, and just one of many stories emerging from across the North’s creative, broadcast and tech sectors.
Seven months into her maternity leave, Lo asked her employer for flexible work arrangements but the process was endlessly “dragged out”.
“When I had a face-to-face meeting about it, it was very clear,” she explained. “I was backed into corners and they’d say: ‘If you work from home and your baby breaks their leg, how will you answer the phone?’
“I remember thinking this feels like a trick question. Then the trick questions kept coming before the ‘this is why we hire men’ line came,” she said. “It was then that my heart just sank.”
