Motherhood is the primary driver of gender inequality in the workforce

Catherine with her working mother, her working daughter, and, hopefully, her future CEO granddaughter.

Why do women not have pay equity or advance in their careers? Because so many of us are mothers.

Motherhood is the primary driver of gender inequality in the workplace. And yet, we do not recognize it as a reason that women have not made the advances we expect. We continue to lament that there is an alarming lack of women who reach the highest levels of industry, government, and education. We continue to lament that women’s pay does not equal men’s. We keep looking at the glass ceiling. What we should be looking at is the broken rung way farther down the career ladder. One of the main reasons that rung is broken? Motherhood.

While organizations make intentional and strategic actions in their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, almost half of their workforce is unacknowledged: mothers. They, too, need programs that promote continuous entry and progression in career.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24.2 million mothers of children under 18-years of age, which is 71.2% of those mothers, are in the US labor force. A 2023 study by McKinsey & Company and Lean In found a distressing decline in representation of women in the corporate pipeline starting with an optimistic 47% at entry level down to a mere 28% in the C-suite. The slide starts at the manager level, that rung on the ladder where the first promotion usually comes along. Studies show that men get 60% while women get 40% of promotions from entry level to the managerial level. Since there are fewer women in each successive pool, the diminishing number of women eligible for promotion becomes more and more pronounced at each progressive managerial level. Combine that with the timing that this is often the point in the woman’s life that collides with her childbearing years. This makes it a double whammy for mothers. A recent study of 134 countries by The Economist of the effect of first birth on women’s career found that, before the birth of a child, men and women progress in career at the same rate. But there is a precipitous drop for mothers after the birth of her first child. There is no such drop for fathers. The study further found that it takes ten years for a mother to regain her career trajectory. This is known as the “Motherhood Penalty.” It is the average amount by which a woman’s probability of being employed declines during the ten years after the birth of her first child.

We have plenty of research on why career and motherhood is hard. We hear repeatedly about the appalling lack of parental leave and subsequent stressful child care challenges. Mothers are 40% more likely than fathers to report that childcare issues negatively impacted their careers. Mothers also state that they need flexibility in their works schedules. Add to this the unconscious bias they often face when they return to work. 23% of mothers say they are treated as less capable to produce and that their commitment to work is questioned. They worry about being labeled a “bad mother” if they miss work to attend to their children and, conversely, if they miss their children’s activities because of work.

Mothers make choices that can stymy, reorient, or even derail their career paths. With the numbers of mothers in the workforce for whom this is an ongoing reality, no wonder we can’t achieve pay equity or more women in higher levels of our organizations. We know that policy and regulations could be implemented to address many of the hurdles mothers confront as they strive to navigate career. Unfortunately, our policy makers and elected officials who could resolve this crisis have demonstrated over and over again that they do not the moral fortitude to take it on.

And so, if we truly want to achieve pay equality for women, and if we genuinely want to watch women stop tripping over the broken rung so that they make it high enough in our organizations to break glass ceilings, it is time to take matters into our own hands. Who has the capability to affect this? Organizations that employ mothers. It is time for organizations to step up.

This as not just a values proposition. With cool clear realistic eyes, this is in an organization’s best financial interest. This issue has been going on too long. Let’s make our organizations even stronger – and, okay, prouder – by retaining and promoting mothers and thereby propelling women into the high levels of management and out of gender inequality.