A One Day Strike? Mothers are Already Striking 365 Days A Year

On International Women’s Day (#IWD2017), activists have called for a “Day Without A Woman” urging women to go on strike and show their economic power. Sounds great in theory, but we already have a women’s strike; mothers do it every day.

Mothers have been striking for years against intolerable workplace cultures that make being an engaged employee and a committed parent impossible. They do this by either downshifting to work part-time or opting out altogether.

You know that statistic about 70% of mothers with children under the age of 18 work? In fact, according to the U. S. Department of Labor only 48% work full-time, the rest cobble together part-time solutions or don’t work at all.

Pew Research reports that for the first time in decades, we are seeing an uptick in stay-at-home mothers. The fastest growing groups are from the middle and lower economic classes. These women want to work, but can’t largely because of the high cost of day care and the lack of support given to moms in the workplace.

Meanwhile, nearly 60% of women who attend the top quartile of American colleges leave the paid workforce to care for their children. Those are arguably the best educated women we have in this country, women who could be filling the leadership gap, and they aren’t working. In fact, nearly one quarter of college educated mothers pause their careers every year.

For my book, Work Pause Thrive: How to Pause for Parenthood Without Killing Your Career, I interviewed 186 women and surveyed nearly 1,500 more to learn how highly qualified women integrate their personal and professional goals. I learned so many things including that while only 11% of women planned to pause their careers, 72% actually did.

These women didn’t “opt-out”, they were shoved out by a work culture that punished them for needing time to care for their families. Sadly, their careers were sent off track because of the pervasive motherhood bias that permeates our workplaces.

Modern research out of Stanford and other major institutions has revealed that when women become mothers, they are viewed as less promotable, less likely to be leadership potential, less capable, and are paid significantly less. In fact, having one child delivers a 24% hit to a woman’s pay check; two children and she faces a 44% wage penalty.

Meanwhile, our work culture is based on the concept of the “Ideal Worker”. That’s the worker who is available 24/7, can travel at a moment’s notice, and who, if they have a family, has someone at home to care for all those little distractions we call life. Women are typically the ones who are doing most of that caregiving. As a result, we can never be ideal workers.

Given how the workplace treats mothers, it’s no wonder so many women go on a silent strike and leave. We’re the canaries in the coal mine revealing a toxic culture in which no one can truly thrive, but in which mothers certainly can’t.

Here’s the thing, the women I interviewed and surveyed who were able to craft a Work Pause Thrive solution because they had two things in common: a college degree and, for most, a partner to support them.

The story for women without one, the other, or both is much more fraught, which is why we have seen female workforce participation stagnate in our country over the past 25 years. Nearly every other major industrialized nation has seen significant gains during this same time frame. The reason we haven’t? A multitude of experts agree it’s because we don’t have public and workplace policies supporting those with caregiving responsibilities.

We’re one of two countries out of the 185 that are part of the UN that doesn’t offer paid maternity leave. The other? Papua New Guinea. Unlike most other major industrialized countries, we also don’t have universal high quality child care or paid sick leave.

What we do have in the U.S. is a “work at will” philosophy, which means those who can’t be ideal workers are forced to figure it out on their own. That may work for those who have the support of a college degree and a partner, but women without resources are struggling deeply.

So while a one-day strike might get our attention, it’s time to focus on why millions of women (and men) leave not just for one day, but for years on end.

So how can companies #BeBoldForChange to support gender equality? Here are three solutions:

1. Offer meaningful paid parental leave: When Google expanded its maternity leave to four months, they saw a 50% increase in post-partum retention of new mothers. Four months should be the minimum and partners should be given a minimum of two months so they, too, can bond with their new babies.
2. Create a return-to-work internship: The fastest way to fill the mid-career leadership gap is to hire a professional who has temporarily paused her career. Employers get engaged, mature, highly qualified employees. Returners get back on track professionally. It’s a win for all.
3. Do Motherhood Bias training for your managers. As noted, motherhood bias is the primary reason women’s careers are derailed once they have children. Helping your managers understand their own biases and training them to support mothers (and others with caregiving responsibilities) can solve the retention problem and keep high caliber employees on track.

It’s time we recognize this isn’t a women’s problem, it’s a business problem. We need to do these things now because we don’t want our best talent to strike even for one day.

Lisen Stromberg is COO of the 3% Movement and author of Work Pause Thrive: How to Pause for Parenthood Without Killing Your Career