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 the day-to-day and long-term support for their family members. In addition to being caregivers, many mothers are also financially supporting 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. 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.
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 the fortune 500 companies (there were 38 women CEOS in the U.S. in 2020).
If you’re looking to understand the importance of working mothers in your organization, I shared my thoughts recently. 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. 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 initial care of a newborn and transforms into helping teenagers become adults who can take care of themselves.
All day long it’s a series of constant decisions and steps, both big and small. And it’s exhausting at times. It’s the 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 steps are 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 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.
As if the normal experience of working motherhood wasn’t hard enough, life became more complicated when we added the effects of Covid-19. In addition to everything else working mothers do, they could add teaching to their list. Across the world, the pandemic pulled back the curtain, especially in the U.S. In an environment where women feel like they must work like they don’t have kids and be a mother who doesn’t work, things came to a head. In 2020 in the U.S. more than 2 million women, many of whom are mothers, left the workforce. Yes, the curtain was pulled back, but the solutions still haven’t bubbled to the surface. (More on solutions below.)
How does Mompowerment fit into things?
I started writing and focusing efforts on supporting working mothers years ago because I saw a gap in resources. At the core of Mompowerment is keeping professional working mothers in the workforce. This is why we help working mothers to create greater balance. This drives the work we do with companies to become more balance friendly. The constant driver is ensuring working mothers are empowered to thrive in their professional lives and still have space (time and energy) to be the moms they want to be!
Mother’s Monday is taking the lead in celebrating working motherhood
Part of this is celebrating our roles as working mothers on a bigger stage. We all saw firsthand how difficult it is to be a working mother (remember how the pandemic pulled back the curtain?).
We’ve been celebrating Mother’s Day since 1914 when Anna Jarvis finally got the day nationally recognized after petitioning Congress for several years. We’re in the second year of acknowledging and putting a spotlight on working motherhood across the U.S., thanks to the Mother’s Monday initiative that Gayatri Agnew started in 2020. Full disclosure: I sit on the advisory board of this amazing initiative. I can’t say enough good things about the work happening here. The panel and speakers they have lined up, both this year and last year, are amazing. If you’re interested in getting new ideas, sign up to attend the free event on Monday. Even if you can’t make it, you can catch the replay. Register now.
What can help you in your experience as a working mother?
As I mentioned above, we now have a spotlight on the challenges of working motherhood. What we haven’t spent enough time doing is sharing solutions, tips, hacks, etc. to help each other. Yes, you’ll get some great ideas on Monday through the event. And, yes, you get loads of practical advice in the Mompowerment books. I will share 5 things here that can help as well:
- 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’re able to 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 in 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?
You’ll get loads of ideas during the Mother’s Monday event. 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 the honest, open conversation. You’ve gotten the 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?
