How to Address the Crisis for Working Moms
Fatima Goss Graves
President and CEO, National Women’s Law Center
Working women take on the vast majority of caregiving responsibilities and study after study shows they suffer a penalty at work as a result. They are typically paid less, promoted less, experience other forms of discrimination and even are pushed out of the workforce entirely because of inflexible policies. The backlash to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and the administration’s unlawful executive orders will only increase the ‘motherhood penalty.’
If leaders are serious about supporting and engaging working mothers—and they have every business and legal reason to do so—they can start by embedding caregiver-conscious practices into their workforce retention efforts. By explicitly addressing these challenges—not as a nice-to-have but rather as core to a company’s profitability—leaders can drive systemic change that not only ensures compliance with anti-discrimination laws but also promotes real equity.
Rather than running away from diversity and inclusion policies, employers can double down on the practices that they know will retain working caregivers. This can look like conducting pay equity audits to identify and correct disparities driven by caregiver bias, adopting robust parental leave policies, and institutionalizing flexible work arrangements that acknowledge the realities of parenting.