We’re days away from Mother’s Day. We take this single day to celebrate mothers across the U.S. These women are often the glue within their families. In addition to the basics of feeding and clothing everyone, they provide day-to-day and long-term support for their family members. In addition to being caregivers, many mothers also financially support their households. It’s easy to break this down into buckets, but really, it goes way beyond all of this. Let’s dive into the complexities and challenges of working motherhood in the U.S.
Working moms in the U.S.
The reality is that many women you might know are working mothers. In fact, according to data shared by the U.S. Census in 2020 about a third of women are working mothers (I worked with the Labor of Bureau Statistics to confirm this is still the case). Yes, you read that right! As a woman, if you’re sitting with a group of women, look to your left and to your right and chances are that one of you three is a working mom. Let me add that I’m talking about moms with children in their household, so kids under 18. This statistic undercounts mothers with kids who are 18 or older.
And these working women are in all sorts of roles from the lowest paying to the most senior roles. In my own research of looking at work-life balance for professional working mothers, I interviewed women in all sorts of industries, including energy, financial services, consumer packaged goods, and technology. They worked in all sorts of roles, including leadership, IT, marketing, finance, operations, and so many more. There are working moms who are solopreneurs all the way to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
I’ve shared my thoughts on the importance of working mothers in the workforce. The reality is that working mothers can be an integral part of your team because of all they do and represent.
Working moms are also important when it comes to entrepreneurship. Somewhere between one in three and one in four entrepreneurs is a mom. Imagine that! Interested in understanding more about working moms and entrepreneurship? Check out my blog post on this.
The challenges of working motherhood
One of the hardest parts of motherhood is that it’s constant. You’re not only a mom for a few hours. You’re constantly caring for your children. It starts with the initial care of a newborn and transforms into helping teenagers become the best version of themselves in that moment and as adults.
All day long it’s a series of constant decisions and steps, both big and small. And it’s exhausting at times. It’s getting up in the middle of the night with a newborn or infant, making breakfast and prepping lunches, finding after-school activities, arranging playdates, helping with school work, etc. The decision fatigue and the (often) small consistent actions can be overwhelming.
Working motherhood can be hard. Continuing to excel in your career or business is hard enough. It only becomes harder when you add caring for another human being into the mix. This combination is doable, though. The lines are often blurred. It requires consistent action, taking small steps that add up over time.
How does Mompowerment fit into things?
I started supporting working mothers years ago because I saw a gap in resources. At the core of Mompowerment empowering working mothers to achieve in their career or business while still being the moms they want to be. That keeps more professional working mothers in the workforce and running businesses. This drives the work we do with companies to become more balance-friendly. The constant driver is ensuring working mothers are empowered to thrive all their roles!
What can help you in your experience as a working mother?
There is more of a spotlight on the challenges of working motherhood (one of the benefits of Covid-19). What we haven’t spent enough time doing is sharing solutions, tips, hacks, etc. to help each other. You get loads of practical advice in the Mompowerment books, but I’m sharing 5 tips here that can help you right now:
- Focus on a long-term approach. It’s not a journey with an end. It’s not a 50/50 split each day. Take the pressure off and shift to long-term a long-term mindset.
- Boundaries matter. We’re better at our jobs if we step away each night. We feel less harried as working mothers if we have time to do all the things we need at work. We’re able to be present and focus our energy on all the different parts of our lives.
- Be intentional with your time and energy. It’s not only productivity or time management; it’s productivity AND time management. Staying focused is also mixed in. Figure out what works for you in each of these areas so you’re intentional with your time and energy. Consider planning your week and each day to truly maximize your time and energy. This has really helped me as a working mama with two unrelated businesses.
- Develop and engage your network. Don’t try to make all of these things come together solo. Tap into your network, both at home and at work. Keep in mind that this is the #1 tip I heard in the interviews I did with 110+ working moms.
- Integrate self-care into your day/week. It’s not selfish to take time for self-care. Carving out this time actually helps you be better in all your roles.
Looking for more ideas? If you have specific areas you struggle with, use the search bar to see if I’ve written about the topic. I’ve literally written hundreds of posts as part of the weekly Mompowerment blog.
What can companies do to support working mothers?
I write and talk a lot about this. I’m sharing 5 here that most companies can put into place now:
- Flexibility. There is a more structured element (e.g., long-term work-from-home policies and job share opportunities) and a more informal side (e.g., adjust your schedule or where you work from because of a sick child or repair man). The idea is to ask employees what they need in each of these areas and then take action.
- Create and support mentorship programs. Having mentors who can guide working mothers through their working motherhood journeys helps your working mama employees be more successful in the different areas of their lives.
- Enable honest, open conversations. It’s not enough to have open doors. You want honest conversations. Managers and leaders need to be vulnerable with their own challenges for more junior staff to share their challenges.
- Consider how employees work across the company. Do you need to rethink your meeting policy/strategy? Do you need to have the typical 9-5 hours? Would new tools be helpful to your teams to improve collaboration and/or communication? Can you be more efficient with how you do things? There might be lots of ways you can have employees change how and when they work.
- Align company benefits with employee needs. You’ve had honest, open conversation. You’ve gotten feedback. Now, look at company benefits. Who wants to pay for benefits that employees don’t actually use?
Trying to understand the importance of working mothers for companies? I share more in a recent blog.
I’ve shared lots of things that might help, whether you’re a working mom or leading work moms. So, now it’s your turn. What’s helping you as a working mom or how are you supporting working mothers on your team?
