Happy Mother’s day! Women in the workforce who are also mothers continue to get hit with “double … [+]
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Mother’s Day in the United States has a curious origin. In 1914, Anna Jarvis petitioned President Woodrow Wilson for a national day to honor mothers. Jarvis wanted to honor her own mother, a peace activist, while also encouraging Americans to connect with their families. The victory was short lived. By 1920, Jarvis was disgusted with over-commercialization of the day and filed lawsuits to prevent businesses from profiting from the holiday. She even lobbied to have the day removed from calendars. Despite Jarvis’s frustrated legacy, the holiday endures. In fact, 83% of Americans plan to celebrate Mother’s Day and will spend an average $220.48 per mom on gifts today, according to the National Retail Federation.
But do moms really want greeting cards, flowers or chocolate for Mother’s Day? “Working mothers and caregivers had a difficult time during the pandemic, juggling childcare and full-time work,” said Institute for Women’s Policy Research president and CEO Dr. C. Nicole Mason. “This year, breakfast in bed won’t cut it.”
In fact, the two best gifts a working mother could get this year would be better funded child care and more paid time off.
Not supporting working mothers could only further delay economic recovery. A new report on mothers and the workplace by McKinsey & Company suggests that as much as 33% of mothers have chosen to downshift their career or leave their jobs altogether. The reason why mothers are quitting? Compounding responsibilities like tending to virtual schooling and housework in addition to maintaining their paying job. McKinsey’s report showed that working moms are 1.5 times more likely than fathers to spend three or more hours per day on additional domestic tasks, with mothers being three times as likely as fathers to be responsible for household management.
These findings align with what the IWPR found in a recent poll of women workers. A strong majority (64.1% of women with children) reported being very or somewhat worried about balancing work responsibilities with their own personal and family needs. A Washington Post-ABC News poll further confirmed that women and people of color are being hardest hit by the pandemic, with mothers confirming that they had to leave their jobs because of child care demands.
Double-duty work for mothers is also taking a toll on their well-being, according to the McKinsey report. While 79% of fathers reported positive outcomes of remote work on their effectiveness, only 37% of mothers found the same to be true. This mirrors a report I covered at the beginning of the pandemic by Owl Labs, that working fathers seem to reap greater benefit when working remotely. That pre-pandemic report found that while remote working might offer the promise of better work-life balance, working dads chose more often to work remotely and were often paid better, too.
Clear boundaries to the work day continue to hurt moms. Nearly a quarter of mothers said they worried about being judged negatively because of caregiving responsibilities, compared with 11 percent of fathers. One anonymous working mom said “there’s a kind of magnifying glass that if my light doesn’t look green to show I’m available to talk, or if I’m not in a meeting, then I’m not working.” This unreasonable expectation of always being available is harmful to promotion velocity and also exacerbates overall career burnout.
The McKinsey report offers tactical suggestions that managers and executives can consider in crafting smarter policies, including:
- Reset norms around flexibility, particularly scheduling and availability that offer relief to working mothers while still moving projects forward.
- Be intersectional and develop retention approaches for women of color and single mothers. These workers have experienced disproportionate burdens during the pandemic.
- Target recruitment programs to help women return to employment. Adjust hiring processes to eliminate possible bias against working mothers.
These suggestions are only the start of how companies can rethink post-pandemic employee engagement policies. “This year has been an incredible test of resilience for women, and especially for working moms,” said Ishanaa Rambachan, one of the report’s authors and a partner with McKinsey. “We have seen how some companies have provided emergency childcare resources or subsidized childcare, tutoring programs for school-aged children, or other programs. Companies that are establishing these types of programs are helping to alleviate the disproportionate burden on mothers, ultimately creating a better environment for mothers to stay in the workplace and thrive. ”
But if you had to get a working mother a Mother’s Day bouquet, what would a meaningful gift be? Probably one that cost $800 Billion, according to Mom’s Deserve Better. The site pairs floral arrangements with the unaccounted costs and unpaid labor that working mothers contribute to the economy. Which, frankly, might be the only bouquet even Anna Jarvis would agree to buying.
