After starting maternity leave in April 2022, 27-year-old Nikita Twitchen, a mother of two, was preparing to return to her job at the building company First Grade Projects. To her shock, however, she was unexpectedly fired when her employer found out she got pregnant with another child while she was absent.

Now Twitchen was awarded a payout of more than £28,000 after a tribunal found she was unfairly let go. This case highlights the scrutiny, stigma, and discrimination mothers confront in the workplace daily.

It all started in February 2023, when Twitchen reportedly attended a meeting with the managing director Jeremy Morgan that began “positively.” Morgan informed her that “the business was doing well” and explained they recently managed to secure a contract with the NHS, a tribunal judgement said. Her boss added that he was looking forward to her glorious return and they agreed what hours she would be working.

However, things took a drastic turn when the new mother revealed that she was pregnant again, which came as a “shock” to her boss.

After her maternity leave finished at the end of March 2023, nobody from her company reached out to Twitchen to confirm her return to work, according to The Independent.

In April, Twitchen asked her superior about her holiday allowance for later in the year but he “failed to respond substantively.”

Fast forward to an awkward phone conversation the two had, in which he told her that she was being made redundant. Morgan cited financial difficulties due to delays in receiving payments from clients, as well as the installation of new software “which meant that the claimant’s role would no longer exist with her becoming redundant.”

Nevertheless, the court found this explanation as unconvincing as Twitchen did, especially since financial constraints, redundancy, or new software were not mentioned at all during their initial conversation in February.

The judge criticised First Grade for not offering “any evidence of the alleged financial difficulties or of the new software,” while also drawing attention to the fact that Twitchen was never given a written explanation for why she had been let go.

Instead, it was suspected that Morgan fired the young mother to stop her from going on another 36 weeks of maternity leave.

She was left unemployed and took cleaning jobs while pregnant to support her family.

The case had the unmistakable scent of wrongful termination, and it wasn’t long before Nikita Twitchen made national headlines, bringing newfound attention to the motherhood penalty. It refers to the economic disadvantages women face in the workplace as a result of becoming mothers, including fewer promotions, wage stagnation, and of course, the mistrust of employers who view pregnancy as a professional liability rather than a natural part of life.

These systematic disadvantages that mothers face in the workplace are the key drivers of the gender pay gap and the gender wealth gap. By contrast, men’s income goes up when they become fathers, outlining a complex net of gendered discrimination.

@tamu_thomas

Lilly Allen has been taken out of context and women are being pitted against each other like this is an individual issue. The motherhood penalty is real and its due to systemic oppression. #feministiktok #motherhood #fyp #momsoftiktok #blackcreators #romanempire #foryou

♬ original sound - Tamu Thomas

@sheisapaigeturner

It didn’t feel impossible to be a mother and remain in the workforce. The motherhood penalty is real and it’s not just something that employers due to women but it’s able to happen due to the inequities in caretaking and domestic labor as well. Working moms take 10 times more time off for their sick kids than dad’s do if that doesn’t say at all, I don’t know what does until men participate in an equitable way at home with their children and families employers will continue to reward them and punish mothers #motherhoodpenalty#wagegap#workingmom#corporatemom#wfhmom#millennialmom#sickkids#sickday

♬ original sound - Paige

@stefaniemoconnell

For every child a woman has her income decreases by ~4% while men’s incomes go up by ~6% when they become fathers (controlling for experience, education, marital status and hours worked). These findings are another example of a gendered double standard commonly referred to as the ‘motherhood penalty’ and the ‘fatherhood bonus’ or ‘premium.’ While mothers are perceived to be less committed to their jobs, less dependable, less authoritative and more emotional when they become mothers (despite evidence to the contrary), fathers are perceived to be more committed to their work than childless men, offered higher starting salaries, held to lower expectations and cut more slack. You can dig into this research and more at 👇🏼 “Motherhood penalties and fatherhood premiums: effects of parenthood on earnings growth withiin and across firms” “The Fatherhood Bonus and The Motherhood Penalty: Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Pay” “Mothers face penalties in hiring, starting salaries, and perceived competence while fathers can benefit from being a parent” #fairplay #motherhoodpenalty #childfreetiktok

♬ original sound - stefaniemoconnell

For now, Twitchen’s big victory in court highlights a step forward in holding companies accountable for such biased treatment. However, it also serves as a reminder that systemic changes are needed to ensure mothers aren’t unfairly penalised simply for having children.