Six PEARLS To Get Moms Back To Work On Their Terms

I’m never quite sure what to do when my newborn screams during board meetings. Even at four months, and a bedroom away, her screams are louder than my speaking voice. As tempting as it might be, I can’t exactly facilitate my company’s virtual board meetings while on mute. Most of the time I crack an awkward joke “and my daughter agrees wholeheartedly with our new D2C growth strategy,” and try my best to move on quickly, all the while quietly dying inside and wondering if my baby actually needs me. 

It’s in moments like these when I understand all too clearly why an estimated 2.3 million American women have left the workforce. Americans have now the lowest women’s labor force participation rate since 1988. That was the year I was born. It’s as if all the progress towards women’s equality over the course of my lifetime has simply vanished, cut down by a cruel pandemic that has been particularly hard on working moms. According to an analysis by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, women with young children are 60% more likely to drop out of the workforce than working fathers.

As we mark the one year anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a national emergency, it’s important to both remember what we’ve lost, and reflect on how we rebuild. Vice President Kamala Harris has often spoken about the need to support working moms, and the recently passed American Rescue Plan offers many initiatives specifically targeted around childcare. I’m not sure that will be enough. 

I think that for many women, it will take more than childcare to lure them back into the workforce. It will take a change of the workforce all together. Along with the numerous challenges of working from home with kids, many women have also felt the inexplicable joy of being around for their little ones’ big moments. These women don’t want to go back to learning about their baby’s first steps from the daycare center, or hearing their child’s new words from the nanny. But they refuse to give up their career for a life of full-time childcare. Perhaps there is now a way to do it all – to have a fulfilling career while still being around for their children. The pandemic has shown these women that in today’s virtual world, they can use their professional talents without needing to work traditional hours from an office. 

I believe that out of the ashes of this pandemic will be a beautiful rise in the number of female founders. Becoming their own boss, and working on their own terms, will be the best path forward for many women as we emerge from this economic crisis. It’s a path that I understand all too well as a mother, a writer, and a founder of a multi-million dollar company in an industry where I once had no experience. I’ve grappled with creating a business from scratch and growing it to receive the highest honors in the food industry. I am now grappling with how to create a workforce that truly works for women. This is a task we must all be grappling with.

Over the next few weeks, I will dedicate my Forbes column to six key things that women reentering the workforce and creating work on their own terms need to know, an acronym which I call PEARLS. First of all, female founders need Perseverance, because most people will tell you your idea is never going to work. You need Enthusiasm to tell everyone you meet about your idea, and ask them for help in the right aways. As your idea gains traction, you’ll go into Acceleration mode, and need to devote all of your energy towards building the systems for scale. Raising resources, from mentorship to allies and capital will be key to your ability to succeed, and I’ll talk about how even women with no prior business experience can do this well. Even if the business is succeeding, there will inevitably be Loss, of employees, of co-founders and of customers. Lastly, I’ll speak about how to do this while still keeping your Sanity, even while juggling children at home. 

Women have the creativity, resilience, and entrepreneurial spirit to develop our own career paths, find meaning in our lives, and rebuild our communities. As I sit here quarantined on my couch, balancing typing while keeping my baby entertained, I know that working moms have what it takes to start the businesses America needs to rebuild our economy and create a more equitable society.