In the midst of the biggest roll back in gender equality in living memory, Pregnant Then Screwed (PTS) is shining a light on the frightening and precarious position faced by mothers across the UK. 

The Halloween-themed ‘March of the Mummies’ has been designed to highlight what PTS describe as a ‘frightening lack of consideration mothers have been granted by the Government’. Taking place on the 29th October, over 14,000 mummies will march across the UK to demand urgent intervention from the Government. 

The march will take place across 11 regions across the UK and aims to bring mothers together to call for urgent government reforms. The demonstration will march across: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Norwich, Belfast and Exeter. 

Celebrities joining the march include; Author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and actors, Bronagh Waugh, and Sarah Solemani. MP’s will also be attending the march, including Stella Creasy and Munira Wilson. 

Joeli Brearley, Founder and CEO of Pregnant Then Screwed, explained: “Mothers from all over the UK have come together today because enough is enough. We want urgent progress on women’s rights. It’s the 21st Century, yet 54,000 mothers are being pushed out of the workforce every year for simply daring to procreate.

She continued: “We have the second most expensive childcare in the OECD, the third worst ranking maternity benefit and the worst ranking paternity benefit in Europe. Data from the ONS shows that women of childbearing age are dropping like flies from the workforce. The childcare sector is in a mess; thousands of nurseries have collapsed this year alone. We have had enough.”

Research from Pregnant Then Screwed previously revealed that 25% of parents in the marketing industry say their earnings don’t cover costs or are completely used on childcare. The campaigning group highlighted how the pandemic has killed women’s creative careers. 

The national protest is demanding reform on three key issues. Firstly, increased funding for the childcare sector to enable affordable, high quality childcare for all children, secondly ring-fenced and properly paid maternity and paternity leave and lastly for all jobs to be flexible by default. 

Pregnant Then Screwed data has revealed the harsh reality that mother’s are currently facing: extortionate childcare costs, pitiful financial support for new mothers and fathers, and a lack of good quality part time and flexible work. With a recent survey revealing that 43% of mothers are considering leaving their job as a direct result of childcare costs.  

Joeli Brearley, CEO and Founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, explained: ‘’We’ve got women terminating pregnancies, thousands more deciding not to have children, or not to have more children. Women falling out of the workforce in droves; and children being pushed into poverty - What for? All because of an unaffordable, inaccessible, dysfunctional childcare sector that has been neglected for the past decade by this Government; a number of broken promises about making flexible working the default; and a parental leave system that simply isn’t working.”

She continues: ‘Women’s economic empowerment hinges on a system that works for us, and the government needs to start taking this, us, seriously. We are calling for an end to the shambolic support system that is failing mothers and families everywhere. We want to see change now.”

To sign up for your local march please head here.