Modern workplaces were never designed for mothers, and it’s time for that to change

By Erica Pimentel and Soraya Bel Hadj Ali for 'The Conversation'

Kingston/Paris: Close to 80 per cent of mothers work outside the home, yet they are are consistently paid less for their work and passed up for job opportunities.

A recent survey from the United States found that two-thirds of mothers considered leaving the workforce in 2024 due to the stress and cost of child care — an issue most pronounced among Gen Z mothers, with 82 per cent reporting these concerns.

Our recent research study calls for recognition of the physical and emotional toll of motherhood on women at work. The essay draws on a combination of personal experience and academic research to examine situations where mothers are pulled between work and family obligations.

We found that many working mothers are faced with the impossible trade-off of balancing full-time work with full-time mothering. It’s no wonder that many mothers feel like they don’t belong in the workplace.

An impossible trade-off

The demands of the modern workplace are at odds with contemporary expectations of motherhood. Today, mothers spend twice as much time with their children as they did in the 1970s.

Contemporary mothers are expected to practise “intensive mothering,” a parenting style that requires them to be intimately involved in the minutiae of their children’s lives, like attending multiple after-school activities.

On the other hand, professional workplaces are becoming increasingly demanding of all workers. American sociologist Alison Wynn coined the term “everwork” to refer to the “combination of overwork, face time, constant availability, and unpredictability” that have become the norm in professional workplaces.

Wynn refers to mothers as “tightrope walkers” trying to balance personal and professional responsibilities under the conditions of everwork, with the potential to fall at any time. Worse still, mothers who try to reconcile their personal and professional obligations by leveraging flexible working options are often penalised with more intense workloads and lost opportunities for professional development.

The simultaneously increasing demands of motherhood and professional life are untenable. Women are expected to work in spaces where performance expectations are simply inconsistent with the reality of family life. Naturally, this is taking a toll: almost half of Canadian mothers report they’ve reached their “breaking point,” meaning they feel overworked, overwhelmed and undervalued.

Struggling to fit into workplaces

Not only do many women believe workplaces are hostile to motherhood, but many also feel that their bodies are not welcome there. Societal norms dictate how women should look and dress at work.

This stress only intensifies during pregnancy. Sociologist David J. Hutson explains how pregnant women oscillate between concealing their bodies in early pregnancy to learning how to deal with unwanted comments and uninvited touching in later maternity.

Many pregnant women are expected to endure this uncomfortable behaviour as a form of emotional labour, a term coined by US sociologist Arlie Hochschild to describe the way women are taught to manage their emotions to make others feel better.

Although laws exist to protect pregnant women from discrimination, this doesn’t prevent colleagues from engaging in practices that make pregnant women feel like they do not belong.

Many mothers also struggle with the physical realities of having a postpartum body in the workplace, such as dealing with leaky breast milk overflows from engorged breasts, unpredictable menstrual cycles and other postpartum changes. While some workplaces provide breastfeeding spaces, this is far from the norm, leaving women to adapt to the rhythms and spaces of the office on their own.

Even long after giving birth, women must remain attentive of their appearance at work. Researchers shows that women who look too “mothering” risk being taken less seriously at work. Dressing like a mom is sometimes used as an insult to describe women who choose an easy to manage hairstyle, don’t wear makeup or prioritize comfort over fashion when choosing their clothes.

Women are expected to control and manage their bodies to conform to workplace norms before, during and after pregnancy — expectations that are at odds with their biology.

Making workplaces work for mothers

As experts in motherhood and mothers ourselves, we are adamant that things need to change. Our recent research outlined a three-pillar call to action to make workplaces more inclusive and equitable toward mothers.

1. Enlist allies and resist negative attitudes about motherhood. Much of modern motherhood has become a logistical battle. Workplaces should implement institutional policies that recognise these logistical challenges, such as a four-day work week or flexible hours. Mothers must also build strong support networks, especially in places like the workplace where positions of power are often occupied by those who aren’t mothers.

1. Recognise the physical toll of mothering and normalise maternal bodies. Workplaces must break down taboos surrounding maternal bodies by creating dedicated spaces for breastfeeding and breast pumping, and running awareness campaigns to normalize these needs. Workplaces should also hire more women — particularly mothers — into leadership roles. When maternal bodies become a common and accepted presence at work, they will no longer be a subject of scrutiny.

3. Recognise the emotional cost of mothering. The emotional burden of parenting, like imbuing children with good values and guiding their decision-making, is the most taxing part about being a parent. Workplaces should acknowledge this by redesigning performance evaluations to account for the time and energy needed for caregiving. This could also mean considering parental and caregiving roles in annual performance evaluation criteria.

Mothers and those who care about them must come together to demand better workplace conditions, not just for mothers, but for others as well. Only through collective action can we create lasting change.

(Erica Pimentel is an Assistant Professor, Smith School of Business, Queen's University, Ontario; Soraya Bel Hadj Ali is a Professeur Associé en Comptabilité Contrôle Audit, Kedge Business School)