Considering the negative influences brought by COVID-19 on the economy, many countries have been experiencing a persistent increase in unemployment rates. It is both timely and crucial to investigate employment rates, with a particular emphasis on the women’s employment rate. This study investigates the impact of maternal leave policies in Europe on women’s employment. This research uses data on women’s employment rate, maternal leave duration, and other control variables from Eurostat spanning from 2009 to 2022 and employs the OLS model for regression analysis. The results suggest that maternity leave policies have a negative effect on women’s employment rates. We further found that for countries with positive economic growth rates, the impact of maternal leave policies on women’s employment rates is negative and significant, while this negative association is not significant in countries with negative economic growth.