IELTS Model Essay Topic Life Style: Women after birth of their baby

Question: In many countries women are allowed to take maternity leave from their jobs during the first month after the birth of their baby. Do advantages outweigh disadvantages?

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IELTS Model Essay Topic Life Style band 8.0

In many countries, women working in almost all sectors are entitled to take maternity leave from their work. I feel that while this trend has some minor downsides, the merits are far greater because it benefits the individual as well as the society.

Admittedly, women taking maternity leave may cause some problems. Firstly, a long period of absence from the work place may affect the career prospects of the women employees. Since the leave may be from six months to one year or more, women who remain away from work for such a long period might miss the chances of promotions and career progression. This can be a setback for career conscious women of today. Another demerit is that the employer may find such an arrangement problematic since they have to recruit new staff to stand in for the women going on maternity leave.

However, the disadvantages mentioned above look insignificant when compared to the merits of maternity leave. From the women’s perspective, long leave with full pay for childbirth would

help them avoid the stress and strain of commuting to work every day while pregnant or immediately after giving birth. From the society’s angle, this is very advantageous as well since rearing healthy children is important for the survival and progress of any society. The first few months are crucial for the baby’s physical psychological health and the mother can provide better attention and care to the child only when she stays away from work. Recognising this important role of women, most countries have made it legally binding on employers to provide maternity leave to women workers with full pay.

To conclude, in spite of the few disadvantages that maternity leave has, it is clear that the merits are more important.