Ireland's workforce could experience a so-called "flexidus" among women taking career breaks, with nearly two-thirds of women saying they've considered leaving or have left their role because of a lack of flexibility.

New research from LinkedIn funds that one n four women have left a job because there wasn't a flexible working policy in place that allowed them to take a career break.

The findings also show that, according to women, the two most helpful policies that employers could introduce would be an increase in annual leave (88%) and flexible start and finish times (86%).

The issue isn't confined to Ireland, with half of women in the UK (52%) saying the same.

The lack of flexibility is also having a significant impact on women's careers, with 22% of women who took a career break because of a lack of flexible working policy saying their career progression has been hindered, and 20% saying they had to choose between childcare and their career.

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The survey data goes on to show that women are more likely than men to even take a pay cut to work flexibly, with 50% saying they had to reduce their salary because of their flexible working arrangement, while over a quarter (27%) of those said that this was the case despite working the same number of hours.

"Our research shows a clear disconnect between female professionals and their employers when it comes to perceptions about flexible working policies," said Sharon McCooey, head of LinkedIn Ireland. 

"Over three in five women have said that they’ve considered leaving or have left, their role because of lack of flexibility, leading to many women regrettably exiting the Irish workforce for a period of time. We want women to be in a position to make any career decisions on their own terms and position a career break as the professional asset that it truly is."

LinkedIn has added 12 career break options to profiles, allowing its users more options in how they describe their breaks on the profile, including reasons such as caregiving, career transition, bereavement, and layoffs.

Some 1,011 employees and 503 hiring managers answered the survey, conducted in January and February this year by Censuswide.

Photo: Sharon McCooey.