You want a career and a baby? Who do you think you are? | Helen Russell

The cost of childcare is the biggest obstacle to equality in the workplace – it is stopping too many women from returning to their jobs

It’s not a great time to be a working mother in the UK. Or so you could conclude from the news that one in five parents are considering reducing the amount they work or giving up altogether in 2015 because childcare is so costly. Oh, and just 43% of councils in England are fulfilling their legal obligation to provide childcare for working parents, compared with 54% last year. Central government grants to fund services like childcare are being cut year on year – up to 25% in some cases according to one council source – which means that local authorities will struggle to pay for even these meagre provisions over the next decade. And amid the din of election promises, no party has come up with a compelling and convincing plan for making childcare affordable – mostly because no party has made it a serious priority.

It’s as though there’s an assumption that, really, women should just stay home and get on with the sticky business of childrearing and then check in again in a few years’ time when the next generation has safely started school. These attitudes give politicians the excuse to turn a blind eye to what’s swiftly becoming the biggest obstacle to equality in the workplace: women being forced to stop working – when they don’t want to.

Related: Why we should all pay towards the cost of childcare

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Parents and parenting | The Guardian

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