Why maternity policies alone can’t fix A&M’s attrition problem

A few days ago, I heard a story that felt strangely out of place in 2026.

A friend of mine, an HR professional herself, had been preparing to return to work after her maternity leave. A day before her joining date, she received the call that her position had been eliminated.

This wasn’t a decades-old anecdote from an era before maternity protections or corporate diversity mandates. It happened just a year and a half ago.

At first glance, such stories appear to be exceptions in an era when corporate India increasingly promotes progressive parental policies. Companies today offer extended maternity leave, hybrid work structures and employee wellbeing programmes.

Yet within the A&M ecosystem, maternity continues to coincide with one of the biggest career drop-off points for women.

Across agencies, HR leaders say the challenge is no longer simply about policies; it is about how the structure and culture of the industry interacts with motherhood.

The structural drivers behind the ‘motherhood penalty’

Across industries, including advertising and marketing, the challenges women face after maternity rarely stem from a single policy gap. Instead, they emerge from a complex mix of workplace structures, managerial assumptions and deeply embedded social norms.

Research consistently shows the scale of the issue. A recent study found that nearly 75% women reported career setbacks of up to two years following maternity leave, and about 40% experienced pay cuts or role downgrades upon their return.

These setbacks frequently take the form of slowed promotions, reduced scope of responsibility or fewer opportunities to lead high-visibility projects.

Within fast-paced sectors like A&M, where career growth is often tied to visibility, client relationships and project leadership such slowdowns can have an even sharper impact on long-term trajectories.

According to Upasana Raina, HR Director at GI Group Holding, these career adjustments often emerge from a combination of organisational dynamics and broader societal expectations.

“Working mothers could experience career slowdowns following maternity, often reporting changes in pay, role scope or advancement opportunities,” she says. “These setbacks can stem from a mix of structural, organisational and societal factors.”

In many cases, assumptions about availability begin shaping career decisions even before a returning employee has the opportunity to define her own professional priorities.

“Employers may consciously or unconsciously assume that a new mother will be less available for demanding projects, travel or leadership roles, or that her long-term career commitment has shifted,” Raina explains. “Such perceptions can result in missed opportunities or unequal treatment.”

At the same time, structural design plays a role. According to Jyoti Singh, Associate Director – Human Resources at greytHR, many career progression systems still operate on the assumption of uninterrupted career trajectories.

“Most career progression frameworks are designed as linear journeys,” she says. “When maternity intersects with appraisal cycles or high-impact projects, the system does not always know how to re-index value upon return.”

She adds that workplace culture also reinforces what she calls a “visibility trap”, where leadership potential is often linked to constant presence rather than outcomes.

“While policies create the foundation, outcomes are shaped by culture and mindset — how managers protect continuity, reassign opportunity and restart career conversations,” Singh says.

But some industry leaders argue that the challenge within the advertising ecosystem runs deeper than policies or career frameworks. According to Shweta Sampat, Founder & Principal Consultant, Tribe For Talent (Tribe Consulting) , the leadership structures within many large networks still reward a particular kind of cultural conformity.

“In the creative communication industry, we are experts at crafting narratives of empowerment for brands,” she says. “Yet behind the glass doors of India’s largest networks, a different script often plays out — one where the ‘bro-code’ becomes the ultimate gatekeeper.”

She argues that leadership pipelines often favour women who adapt to existing power structures rather than challenge them.

“The women who occupy a sliver of space at the top often survive because they’ve mastered the art of making the men around them feel secure,” she explains. “Systemic flaws in large networks have created a leadership filter that rarely rewards merit alone. Instead, it rewards a specific brand of ‘palatability’.”

Policies exist, but culture determines outcomes

Across the advertising and marketing industry, organisations have steadily introduced measures such as flexible work arrangements, hybrid models and extended parental leave to support working mothers. On paper, the policy environment appears far more progressive than it once was. Yet attrition among women after maternity remains a persistent concern, suggesting that the gap may lie less in policy design and more in how these policies are experienced in everyday workplace culture.

According to Upasana Raina, intent alone does not guarantee impact. “According to Upasana Raina, HR Director at GI Group Holding, intent alone does not guarantee impact.” 

For policies to work, she explains, they must be consistently understood and supported across teams, especially by managers and senior leaders who influence day-to-day decisions. 

Sampat believes this commercial reality frequently shapes the lived experience of working mothers. “For a 20-year veteran, a life milestone like motherhood shouldn’t be a career-ending event. Yet, in the current ecosystem, these milestones are viewed as professional hurdles,” she says.

She adds that while organisations may formally promote progressive policies, their implementation can change when business pressures intensify. “While HR manuals are thick with progressive policies, the ‘lived experience’ is dictated by the P&L. The moment a deadline looms or a pitch is at stake, ‘flexibility’ is discarded as a luxury the agency cannot afford.”

This tension between policy intent and lived experience also affects career momentum after maternity leave. Jyoti Singh, says, “Today, the challenge is rarely the absence of leave; it is the impact on career momentum.” 

She notes that in many organisations flexibility exists more as permission than as a system designed to sustain long-term career growth. Structured re-entry plans, clear goal alignment and consistent manager engagement, she adds, can help restore clarity and rebuild momentum for returning professionals.

Beyond return-to-work

In recent years, organisations have begun looking more closely at what happens after women return from maternity leave, recognising that return-to-work numbers alone do not fully capture retention or career continuity.

According to Jyoti Singh, “There is a growing recognition that care infrastructure — whether childcare support, flexibility alignment, or workload design — is a business enabler, not a personal concession.” 

Over the last three to five years, she notes, some organisations have moved beyond simply tracking return-to-work rates to examining what happens in the months that follow.

“We’ve seen a move beyond tracking return-to-work rates to monitoring 6–12 month retention, post-return promotion velocity, pay progression and engagement levels,” Singh explains, adding that these metrics are increasingly being viewed not just as DEI indicators but as measures tied to productivity, succession planning and leadership pipeline development.

However, Singh emphasises that measurement alone cannot solve the issue.

“Policy may establish the minimum standard, but culture determines whether career continuity is genuinely sustained,” she says. “Without both evolving together, post-maternity retention will remain a reported statistic rather than a realised outcome.”

For Shweta Sampat, the creative communication industry offers a stark example of this gap between policy narrative and workplace reality. 

“The recent trend of mega-mergers has only exposed the depth of this tokenism,” she says. “When a group-level leadership team is announced with only one woman at the top, the ‘safe space’ narrative is revealed as a hoax. This isn’t leadership; it’s a mascot.”

From a talent perspective, Sampat believes the consequences run deeper than representation metrics.

“When seasoned leaders, the very people who hold institutional memory and client trust, exit because they refuse to participate in a ‘namesake’ culture, the industry loses its soul,” she says. “This industry isn’t losing employees; it is losing the future leadership pipeline.” 

She adds, “Until it stops measuring ‘commitment’ by late-night ‘bro-bonding’ and starts valuing impact, the 75% maternity penalty will remainthe creative industry’s greatest shame.”

My friend eventually found another role. Many women do. But the detours, pauses and quiet exits that follow maternity leave continue to reshape the talent pipeline of the advertising and marketing industry.

Even as policies expand, the gap between intent and everyday workplace realities remains visible. Until that gap narrows, maternity will continue to mark a critical turning point in many women’s careers — often at the stage when the industry needs their experience the most.