The gender pay gap in the UK is currently at 18.1% – lower than previous years, but still an indefensible difference in men and women’s average earnings.

Among the many contributing factors, having children is one of the biggest; a 2016 report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that the gap widens significantly as women get older, and concluded that “differences in career patterns stemming from the birth of children have a key role to play in explaining the evolution of the gender wage gap across the life cycle.”

And it’s not simply the immediate fact of parental leave usually being taken by the mother; the study showed the gap continued to rise until the child was 12. The IFS concluded that the average woman is more likely to be tasked with ongoing childcare than the average man, which affects her career.

Average earnings aside, on a personal level it can feel daunting returning to the workplace with a childcare gap in your CV, however long the career break.

But in the US, one innovative campaign hopes to change negative connotations of maternity leave by encouraging women to rebrand the ‘time off’ as a job – pointing out that looking after a small human rarely involves putting your feet up.

LinkedIn users can list the job title of ‘Mom’ working at The Pregnancy Pause for the duration of their career break – “whether 12 weeks or 12 years” – and any prospective employers clicking on the company will be taken to a page explaining that maternity leave “isn’t a vacation”.

This campaign urges women to rebrand maternity leave as a job on their CVs