The report claims that women who work part-time or in rotating shifts end up having their "career progression suppressed," especially when they become mothers. This, in turn, brings about a misallocation of skills in the economy, as well as affects a company's productivity and staff retention, exposing it to additional recruitment costs.
The report argues that fixed part-time schedules and rotating shifts represent "structured flexibility," forcing women to unwillingly lose some flexibility in their working schedule and leading them to work below their skills level.
Pointing to the broad-ranging reasons for the suppressed working conditions in which women find themselves, the study cites "interactions between the structural dynamics of economies and firms, government policies and regulations, and cultural changes which over time have affected the nature of the household."
The authors of the report claim that employers can boost their economic output if they grant greater flexibility to women, thus permitting them to combine motherhood and work.
The study shows that in 2010 as many as 64.4 percent of women in the British workforce were not given the opportunity to alter their fixed schedules, while only 25 percent could have their working preferences accommodated. Whereas, in Poland the situation was even worse, where 75.7 percent of women surveyed that year said they had no possibility of altering their schedules.
