The majority of women returning to work after maternity leave do not want to be 'eased back' into practice, a new survey has found.

The poll of more than 250 fee earners by coaching and networking platform BlueSky found that the majority of respondents felt respected and valued by partners in their firms before, during and after maternity leave.

But of those who are three months into their return, just 10% felt very positive about access to career enhancing opportunities. That proportion rose slightly to 15% for women six months into their return, and 44% who were very positive nine months after coming back to work.

Fewer than half of women said that ongoing matters were given back to them within the first three months of their return, and just 37% felt they had returned to the quality of work they were expecting.

BlueSky co-founder Hannah Bradshaw, a qualified lawyer, said there is a misconception among law firm leaders that women coming back from maternity want a gradual return to the work they previously did.

Hannah Bradshaw, BlueSky co-founder

Bradshaw: 'We’d like to see firms have a plan with post-return work allocation'

‘Most of the women we coach want to be partners and want to come back to work that’s going to help them progress and get back up to speed as quickly as possible,’ said Bradshaw. ‘I don’t think that’s the assumption that most firm partners are making. Of course, there are women who don’t want partnership, and there are women who take longer to settle back in than others, but what we can see with our data is that there’s a clear link between getting back to doing good quality work and feeling confident and motivated for partnership. We’d like to see firms have a plan with post-return work allocation, and doing more to get women back up to speed.’

Just 25% of women who were on maternity leave felt confident about their chances of making partner, and this had risen to just 32% after three months back at work. The survey revealed that after nine months of being back, 77% of women were confident about becoming a partner. Of the women surveyed, 83% wanted to progress to partnership.

On the issue of hybrid work, 62% of participants said their firms have mandated a return to more office-based work in the past year. But almost three-quarters (72%) said this policy had impacted them negatively.