Project Matua

Project Matua (Project for the Parents) was initiated in 2017. The project was initiated to understand the current status of maternity/paternity support in the geothermal industry and to work on ideas/models/tools that we can promote to the industry.

Identify what “good” looks like for parental support in the geothermal industry.
Identify challenges faced by the employers in providing parental support.
Identify current status of parental support in the geothermal industry.
Benchmarking of companies in their parental support.
Opening conversations on promoting fathers to share parental support with mothers.
Recommend and promote a flexible working environment.

Background

Women face maternal bias. There is unconscious bias that mothers cannot be good employees because good mothers are 100% focused on their children and good employees are 100% focused on the jobs. Motherhood triggers performance bias i.e. “I didn’t consider you, because I think you don’t want to travel too much and leave your kids behind.” It also triggers likeability bias, i.e. successful women leaders are disliked when seen as not nurturing mothers. There is a double blind on likeability and competence. Fathers also are also influenced by this unconscious bias as well.

Based on 2014 statistics from Australian Human Rights Commission:

Discrimination has a negative impact on women’s engagement in the workforce and their attachment to their workplace:

22% of the mothers that experienced discrimination in the workplace during pregnancy did not return to the workforce
32% of mothers who were discriminated against at some point went to look for another job or resigned
18% of mothers indicated they were made redundant/restructured, dismissed or that their contract was not renewed at some point during their pregnancy, when they requested or took parental leave, or when they returned to work

However, this is an unspoken issue. Only 9% of the mothers who experienced discriminations made a complaint. The reasons for not speaking up include:

27% felt that the discrimination was not serious enough, it didn’t bother them or that they sorted it out
24% felt it was too hard, stressful or embarrassing for them to take action
22% felt that they would not be believed or nothing would change if they took action in response to the discrimination they experienced.

Employers also face challenges throughout the parental support process. This includes operating in an environment of uncertainty and variability. Additional efforts are required in finding and training temporary replacement for the employee. There are also challenges in competing between the demand of managing a business and the need of pregnant employees..

Why focus on parents rather than mothers only?

Women still do the majority of the housework and caregiving role, men’s careers often get prioritised. In order to help women to return to work after pregnancy, men need to be able to share responsibility and provide support in a caregiving role. On the other hand, men also get influenced by the unconscious bias when taking upon caregiving responsibility or paternity leave. Hence this project also looks at paternity support received by men.

Study

Sara Matthíasdóttir

As a student at the University of Iceland, Sara undertook a comparative study of the impact of parental leave for parents working in the geothermal sector in New Zealand and Iceland. This project was supported by WING and UNU-GEST, and completed in June, 2019.

Her Master’s thesis was entitled, “Takes Longer to Reach Your Goals”. This study explores how employees experience returning from parental leave when working in a geothermal industry in Iceland and New Zealand. The study is conducted using qualitative research methods, where data was collected from ten interviews, five were from Iceland and five from New Zealand, all working in the geothermal industry, who have had a baby within three years before the interview and have taken a parental leave. Most of the interviewees are in a global network called WING (Women in Geothermal), a group of determined individuals that want to promote and help women to advance in the geothermal industry. The research examines the experience of taking a parental leave when the focus is on the career, the barriers parents face, how the people in the industry tackle work and home-life obstacles, and how they meet their responsibilities at work. The major themes recurring throughout the interviews were: absence from work when taking a parental leave, flexibility at work, part-time work, and support from their employer.