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Women in the UK Intelligence Community
it is clear from our conversations that there is still a misunderstanding
amongst staff, and further publicity is therefore needed.
“However, once in the office, there were implied restrictions on
what jobs you could do as a working mother – often from men who
were assuming they were being helpful, along the lines of: ‘Oh you
wouldn’t want to do that job, there’s too much travel for a mum’. How
one resolves one’s childcare arrangements is a very personal decision,
based on both finances and on parenting choices, so I found these
assumptions (largely made by husbands with stay-at-home wives)
galling. You are much less likely to get a male manager saying that
now. For practical childcare reasons, and through personal choice,
we still don’t have loads of mothers of small children hopping on
planes to meet agents, or running stations, but we have enough
women who have simply scoffed at the idea that they might not be
able to do something, and just done it anyway, to have disproved
some largely unspoken prejudices about the operational roles of
women, and of mothers in particular.”
Working mother at SIS
35. There has been some work by the intelligence Agencies to examine
how to accommodate the wishes of the returnee against the needs of
the organisation. At least one Agency now ensures that posts are held
open for returnees. There are ways in which a woman on maternity
leave can maintain her skills during leave to ease the difficulty in
returning to the same post. For instance, staff in all of the Agencies
receive up to ten paid days to maintain their skills during maternity
leave. Returning to the role they left, if that is what they want, should
be standard practice.
“I was fortunate to arrange to return to the post I held before I
went on maternity leave, which I believe is unusual practice. In one
sense, it was not the best thing for my career (another post would
have given me broader experience). However, what I have gained
has probably offset this. I was able to return to a frontline post, yet
work part-time. I still receive encouragement to take on challenging
job objectives ‘despite’ working part-time. The post is demanding
(including lots of travel) which I am willing to do due to the support
I have received from my team.”
Working mother at GCHQ
“Flexible working
hours can be a makeor-break issue for
those with childcare
responsibilities.”
36. Childcare support. All the Agencies offer some financial help
with childcare. In the case of SIS, this is an allowance to help with the
cost of childcare and a scheme through which parents can purchase
tax-free vouchers for childcare. Whilst there is a broadly positive view
of the allowances and schemes from staff at the Agencies, there was
also feedback from some individuals that the allowance was too small
considering the growing cost of childcare, especially in London, and
that having a digital version of the childcare vouchers would be more