Coaching through maternity transitions: through the prism of coaching, how can women going through the maternity transitions in the private equity industry be better supported?

Against the backdrop of ever-increasing pressure for more diversity in senior roles in financial services, organisations are putting time and resource into creating the conditions for all employees to thrive and have equitable opportunities. It has been identified that maternity is a point of inflexion in the careers of women, with those not returning or changing roles impacting the pipeline of women into senior roles. One of the solutions to this problem is to offer women maternity coaching with an external coach, to support them through the maternity leave transitions out of and back into work.

This thesis explores the lives of women who become mothers working in the Private Equity (PE) industry, an area of financial services with specific cultural nuances that make it systematically challenging for women to take maternity leave and return to work as mothers. The study is carried out through the prism of coaching, by a practicing maternity coach, in two large international PE firms. There is an ample body of literature that explores maternal workers - including the maternity transitions - though not relating to the financial services industry. Maternity coaching literature is limited, with much of the existing knowledge landscape published in consultant or marketing reports.

In this inquiry, the rich data set is drawn from a total of 27 recorded interviews with maternity returners, 38 maternity coaching sessions (including line managers as well as those taking maternity leave), and the coach’s reflective journal. Given the practitioner-researcher nature of this inquiry, the findings have implications for a variety of stakeholders: PE firms, the academic community, the coaching community of practice, and also the researcher’s own approach to coaching. This writing acknowledges the different ‘knowledge cultures’ inherent in these different communities, and intentionally presents each with the findings relevant to their domains.