No one asks a man how impending fatherhood will affect his career. A couple of weeks of paternity leave, then it is back to work with barely a rung missed on the professional ladder.

The same cannot be said for new mothers returning to the workforce. Aside from the obvious fact that it is women who give birth and thus need more time to recuperate, those trying to maintain a steady career progression are often in for a nasty shock when they get back to the office.

The legal profession poses specific challenges for women in this position, something Hannah Bradshaw and Sarah Lyons are now seeking to put right. This month saw the launch of their company Blue Sky, which aims to support women returning to work in law.

It is something Bradshaw and Lyons have been planning for years. Coincidentally, both had worked as employment lawyers at a top law firm —though not at the same time — but their paths only crossed later when they were working for a coaching consultancy. Finding common ground in their unhappy experiences as young working mothers spurred them
into action.

“Before I had kids, I wanted to be partner,” says Bradshaw. “I was in a lovely team and I felt my career was very much on track for that. Looking back, I was very naïve. I felt like being a woman had never held me back at all.

“I think that as a lawyer there are unique issues that you face when you come back after maternity leave. I came back and all my clients had been given to other people. The rubbish work that I had been doing came back to me straight away but the good stuff… other people felt that it was their work now, because they had been doing it for six months.

“Very naively, I returned after six months thinking a year is too long, everyone will be very grateful if I come back quickly. That was such an error. I didn’t know that six months down the line, children still don’t sleep.

"I was barely getting any sleep, I was rushing back to get my daughter from nursery, I shouldn’t have come back that quickly. No one was grateful. I was very aware that there wasn’t really any support at that point. I felt that I wanted some kind of mentoring, guidance or coaching.”

“Women tend to pay a professional penalty when they have children in the corporate world,” says Lyons.

“You get to a point where you have to make a choice whether it is your career or your family. Some women decide to outsource lots of the childcare, some women decide to leave and there is also something called a ‘mummy track’ where you are working in a law firm in a support role —it is called a professional support lawyer.

"So what our company is seeking to do is help women think about those key points in their career, despite having had a child, to help them navigate and make decisions about what they want their career to look like.

“I am married to a doctor, and you couldn’t have the two of us working long hours with a child you have to pick up from nursery. If people are staying late in the office, it is usually the woman who bears the brunt of the childcare. There are so many times when I’m sprinting home to get there for the nursery which will then fine you if you are late… and then there is the guilt as well.

"So that less ‘elastic’ day is definitely a thing when you come back after having a baby. Being passed over for some of the most interesting work because you are seen as either not committed because you are leaving to collect your child, or not ambitious. I was ambitious, I thought I would be a partner in a law firm, but the landscape really changes when you have a child.”

Fewer women in top roles as potential role models and the post-qualification experience hierarchy followed by most law firms means that women returners are at an immediate disadvantage. This is where what Blue Sky offers —group workshops and one-to-one coaching at AllBright, a plush women’s club in Mayfair — could be helpful.

“I think the most critical workshops are towards the end of the programme when you are returning back to work and you are thinking about how you want to build your career moving forward,” says Lyons.

“You are out of the foggy exhaustion of the baby and there’s no one who comes to you to say, ‘What do you want your career to look like?’ No one in your firm has got the time or cares that much. We are there as coaches to help people think about their career in the future, think about how they are going to make it work at home with their partner and with family support.”

Both women come from political families, but at opposite ends of the spectrum. Bradshaw’s grandfather is Lord Young, who served as a minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government, while Lyons’ father Roger is a former trade union leader.

“I think my grandfather would be quite disappointed on how much we agree,” laughs Bradshaw. “He has started lots of businesses, he is very entrepreneurial, and I think having someone like that growing up has made me feel that I could start my own business.

“Both grandad and my dad have given me a range of career advice around how much more difficult they think it is for women in law, which I must say I totally ignored before I had children. I thought they were talking complete rubbish. I thought it’s not hard for me as a woman at all, and then when I had children I realised that everything they had told me was correct.”

Lyons was brought up in a strong Labour household. “My mum was quite a role model. She worked, had four kids and was a Labour councillor in Barnet, so it was a busy house and it was never felt that as a girl you’ve got any limitations on you.

“I was always treated exactly like my brothers and there was always an expectation that I would go on to do something.”

She says her parents were probably disappointed when she left the security of working in law but understood her reasons.

“They saw what it was like, especially with a husband who has got a demanding job as well. Who is going to be there for the kids? You don’t want to outsource it to a nanny, you bring kids into the world to raise them and be there for them.

“We were told that women can have it all, but the reality is that you can’t and if you want to try then you need support. That what our company is seeking to do — have that layer of support around that parental journey.”

wearebluesky.co.uk