Since the beginning of April, Mums Hub has been conducting a survey with mothers in the North East Inner City, exploring their experiences of returning to work and navigating care responsibilities. As the survey closes this week, early findings are already pointing to a clear and consistent pattern.

These insights align closely with national data and wider European research, reinforcing a broader structural issue.

The challenge is not a lack of willingness to work, but a lack of pathways that make work possible.

What Mothers Are Telling Us

Early findings from the survey, combined with national data and ongoing engagement with mothers, point to a consistent pattern in how work and care are experienced in practice.

The first and most immediate insight is clear: mothers want to work.

Across responses, there is a strong interest in returning to employment or increasing working hours where possible. This aligns with national data, which shows that approximately 245,000 women in Ireland are currently classified as “looking after home or family,” while over 30% of women in employment work part-time, compared to just over 11% of men.

These figures do not reflect a lack of ambition or engagement with work. Rather, they point to a system where participation is shaped by the conditions within which care is carried.

The second insight relates to the barriers mothers face when attempting to return to work.

Childcare remains one of the most significant constraints. Costs in Dublin can exceed €14,000–€18,000 per year per child, while availability continues to be limited, with thousands of children on waiting lists across the city and nationally. Even where childcare is available, it does not always align with working hours, requiring families to manage complex arrangements in order to make employment possible.

Beyond childcare, responses also highlight a lack of employment opportunities that reflect the realities of caregiving. School-hour roles, part-time positions, and flexible working arrangements remain limited in availability, despite clear demand. This is often compounded by a loss of confidence following extended time out of the workforce, alongside difficulties navigating fragmented supports and services.

At the same time, mothers are also clear about what would enable them to participate in work.

There is a consistent demand for employment that aligns with school hours, alongside flexible and remote working options, job-sharing opportunities, and accessible pathways back into employment. These are not abstract preferences, but practical conditions that would make participation possible.

These findings point to a clear conclusion.

The issue is not a lack of willingness to work. It is the absence of pathways that reflect how care and daily life are structured in practice.

A Wider Pattern Across Europe

What is emerging at a local level is not unique.

Across Europe, the State of Motherhood in Europe 2024 report by Make Mothers Matter - MMM highlights a consistent pattern in how mothers experience work and caregiving. The findings show that 67% of mothers report feeling overloaded, with half experiencing mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety, or burnout. At the same time, access to flexible employment remains limited, with only 46% of mothers reporting access to adapted working hours, and just 27% able to access remote work.

The impact of this is reflected in employment patterns. Following the birth of a first child, full-time employment drops significantly, with a proportion of mothers leaving the workforce entirely. Many others reduce working hours, often moving into part-time roles that can affect income, career progression, and long-term financial security.

In Ireland, this impact is even more pronounced, with the highest reported negative effect of motherhood on careers among the countries surveyed.

These findings reinforce what is also emerging through local engagement. Mothers are not stepping away from work by choice alone, but navigating systems that do not reflect the realities of caregiving. Where flexible pathways do not exist, participation becomes difficult to sustain.

Mothers are already working, through unpaid care. The challenge is that current systems do not allow that work to exist alongside financial independence.

Where the System Falls Short

What becomes clear is not a lack of motivation, but a gap in how systems are designed to support participation in work.

At present, employment pathways in Ireland continue to be structured around full-time availability. This assumption does not reflect how caregiving operates in practice, particularly for mothers balancing school schedules, limited childcare provision, and the day-to-day coordination of care.

This gap is also visible in how access to employment supports is defined.

In practice, mothers who are available for part-time work, including those seeking school-hours employment, are not consistently recognised within the system as jobseekers. As a result, access to activation supports, training programmes, and schemes such as Community Employment (CE) can be limited. This creates a situation where mothers who are willing and able to work are not supported to do so within existing pathways.

At the same time, while some recognition of unpaid care exists, it remains partial and difficult to access. Supports such as PRSI credits and the Homemaker’s Scheme are not automatic and often depend on individual awareness and engagement with administrative processes. These supports are primarily designed for long-term pension entitlements and do not provide immediate financial support or structured pathways back into employment.

This reflects a broader issue in how care is recognised within the system.

While targeted supports exist for a range of groups facing barriers to employment, caregiving responsibilities are not consistently treated as a structural constraint in their own right. As a result, mothers navigating care and seeking flexible or part-time pathways into work can fall between existing categories of support.

What emerges is a cohort of mothers who are neither fully recognised within employment systems nor supported through social protection pathways.

What This Means in Practice

Taken together, these findings point to a clear and consistent pattern.

Mothers are not disengaged from work. They are navigating a system that does not provide viable pathways to participate in employment in a way that aligns with caregiving responsibilities.

This distinction is important.

Much of the current conversation around work and care is framed in terms of choice. However, the evidence suggests that for many mothers, the issue is not whether to work, but whether it is possible to do so within the conditions that currently exist. Where childcare is unavailable or unaffordable, and where employment is structured around full-time availability, participation becomes constrained rather than chosen.

This has direct implications for financial independence.

Without access to employment that aligns with care, many mothers remain dependent on household income, regardless of their willingness or ability to work. This limits access to independent earnings, reduces long-term financial security, and can restrict options over time.

At the same time, the impact extends beyond income alone.

Where pathways into employment are accessible, mothers report increased confidence, reduced isolation, and stronger connections to their communities. These conditions support not only individual wellbeing, but also shape the environments in which children are growing up. When mothers are supported, children benefit from greater stability, engagement, and overall wellbeing.

Conversely, where mothers experience prolonged isolation, financial dependency, or limited access to participation, these pressures can affect the wider family environment over time.

What emerges is not a single barrier, but a system that has not been designed to accommodate the realities of care.

A System Still Catching Up with Care

This is not a new issue, but it is becoming more visible.

Across local insights, national data, and European research, a consistent pattern is emerging. Mothers are ready to participate in work, but the systems around them are not designed to support that participation in practice.

The gap is not in willingness, but in how work, care, and support structures are aligned.

Addressing this does not require rethinking individual behaviour, but rethinking how systems are designed to recognise care as a central part of economic and social life.

Until that happens, many mothers will continue to navigate pathways that were not built with them in mind.

This article is part of Karla’s wider series exploring care, work and economic security for mothers across Europe and Ireland.