It appears that employers who shun pregnant women are actually missing out on an opportunity to gain from a natural brain boost that occurs after women give birth - and which stays with them for life.
According to a scientific study carried out in the US by Craig Kinsley, professor of neuroscience at the University of Richmond, Virginia, (reported in the Sunday Times) having a child rewires a woman's brain, improving her mental agility and skills. In particular, experiments - so far only carried out on animals - have shown that mothers get more "computing" power as a result of growing new sets of brain cells, coined "maternal circuits".
Kinsley says:
"Pregnant women do undergo a phase of so-called baby brain, when they experience an apparent loss of function. However, this is because their brains are being remodelled for motherhood to cope with the many new demands they will experience. The changes that kick in then could last for the rest of their lives, bolstering cognitive abilities and protecting them against degenerative diseases."
A 2007 review on inequalities in the UK workplace (on the Cabinet Office website) reveals the extent to which employers are missing out. It found that women with young children face more discrimination than disabled people or those from ethnic minorities. Among 122 recruitment agencies covered by the research, over 70% had been asked by clients to avoid hiring pregnant women or those of childbearing age.
Perhaps if financial institutions had thought outside the box and employed more women like Nicola Horlick, renowned supermum and fund manager - who has given birth five times - the world's finances might be in better shape.
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