Bridging the Gap That Exists Between Career & Motherhood
Becoming a mother was the most transformative moment in my life, as it is in the lives of many other women.
And I, like many other women, struggled with the decision to go back to my 8-to-5 marketing job in corporate America, after just three short months with my baby.
While I had always been driven to have a successful career, for the first time I questioned it. I felt like my daughter and I were just starting to bond after getting off to a challenging start, and I was only sleeping 3-4 hours at a time.
I was worried I wouldn’t be able to continue breastfeeding, and I would only get to spend one hour with her before bedtime. But, my family needed my income. I didn’t want to sacrifice the home we loved or lifestyle we were accustomed to, so I felt going back to my full-time career was my only option.
For far too long, women have felt they had to make a choice between career and motherhood. And, in the words of @amywestervelt, women who choose to do both often feel like we’re expected to work like we don’t have children and raise children like we don’t work. Why can’t women have both and feel like they are not sacrificing one over the other?
This shouldn’t have to be a choice. Women have a right to choose into the work that fulfills them, mentally and emotionally, without guilt and without judgment, whether that is starting their own business, working in an office, becoming CEO of a corporation or being a full-time mom and CEO of their household.
We need more (and better!) options. And while the pandemic has shook our world in many ways, there HAS been a silver lining. Companies now realize employees no longer need to clock in from 9-to-5 and spend five days a week in a traditional office to be productive. People are prioritizing time spent doing the things they love with the people they love. The Great Resignation is happening, as people reevaluate career choices and realize that no job is worth sacrificing their physical and mental health.
At the same time, many women have left the workforce, whether it was by choice or by necessity.
Before the pandemic, women made up more than 50% of the country’s workforce.
Fast forward two years to 2022, and 3.5 million mothers with school aged children have either lost jobs, took leaves of absence, or left the labor market altogether.
What is the number one reason why they had to leave their careers?
Because when schools and daycare centers shut down, someone had to stay home to care for the kids. And in the majority of households across America, it was women who sacrificed their careers, at a much higher rate than men. The pandemic has demonstrated that while we’ve made some progress, we have a long way to go to eliminate the gender bias that still exists.
In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the pandemic has set women’s labor force participation back more than 30 years, while the moms who continued to work have had to juggle work, childcare, virtual and home schooling and pandemic related school and childcare closures. The stress of it all has driven many moms to their breaking point, as evidenced by this recent NY Times article showing a group of moms who met on a football field to scream out of sheer exhaustion, from the endless cycle of work and child care.
The past two years have taken its toll on everyone, but especially, mothers. A recent study, conducted by Welch’s, found working moms clock an average of 98 hours per week, the same as working 2.5 full time jobs. After analyzing their weekly schedules, the average mom started at 6:23 a.m. and ended the day at 8:31 p.m., with only 1.7 hours of free time in between, the equivalent of a 14-hour workday.
Yet, on average, women continue to earn 82 cents on every dollar a man earns.
Women continue to earn 82 cents on every dollar a man earns
These numbers don’t add up. Why should women sacrifice quality time with their kids for their careers, to continue to earn less than a man earns for the same quality of work? And why are we expected to manage two more-than-full-time jobs, and be perfect at both?
We keep striving for this elusive balance, but we come up short because the fact is, true balance does not exist. So it’s time to change the narrative. What if career and motherhood could successfully coexist? What if working moms and stay-at-home moms could come together to support one another? What if companies could create opportunities that blend career WITH motherhood?
At June Care, we are working to do just that, by creating a platform to help #momssupportmoms and bridging the gap that has existed between working moms and stay-at-home moms. How? We match working parents with stay-at-home parents who can help with childcare. By offering moms an opportunity to earn an income while they’re parenting, they get the benefit of flexible work that fits their life and the opportunity to help support another mom by providing accessible childcare from another caring parent.
And the good news is, we’re not the only company doing this. Here are a few others:
The Mom Project helps mothers access career opportunities by connecting employers to moms seeking career opportunities that fit into their life, along with career development resources and job search tools.
HireMyMom.com helps businesses hire talented virtual team members and freelancers while at the same time, helping mom professionals find flexible, legitimate, home-based work to fit their schedule.
FIT4MOM allows moms to become business owners by opening a fitness franchise with flexible hours and child-friendly fitness classes.
We are so encouraged to see companies working to bridge the gap that exists between career and motherhood, along with the pay gap that exists between men and women, by providing opportunities for women to be treated as equals.
We believe that all moms work, and we strongly believe in women supporting women in their most important work, whether that be inside or outside the home. We are stronger together, and together WE can use our voices to make change.
