Happy Mother’s Day. Four years ago, I wrote about what U.S. working mothers were navigating through my own experience as working mom and senior leader. In 2026, the data says we’ve made almost no structural progress. In some cases, we’ve gone backward.
We keep celebrating working mothers while designing workplaces that punish them for existing.
I checked in with a number of mamas in my U.S. professional network about their experiences being pregnant and transitioning back to work. They shared about feeling overwhelmed and pressured to appear strong. Struggling to go back to the same pace they had before motherhood. Hiding the physical realities of postpartum care and breastfeeding from their employer, sometimes to the detriment of their health. Repeatedly I heard about the need for time, and the need for resources that would have helped working mothers reclaim autonomy over schedules stuffed with competing demands.
To those who say “then don’t work” — most mothers don’t have that choice.
To those who say “you chose to have kids, it’s not my job to support you” — you’re still benefiting from the labor of people who raise the next generation of workers, consumers, and taxpayers.
The economy doesn’t run without moms.
Some will point to record labor force participation: 73.9% of mothers with children under 18 are now working. Progress, right?
Look closer. Only 27% of private-sector workers have access to paid family leave at all. That means most of those working moms are doing it without the support that would make it sustainable.It means mothers have no choice but to work. And are doing so despite the design, not because of it.
→ 82% of working moms find the postpartum period extremely challenging (it’s called the fourth trimester for a reason)
→ 45% have seriously considered leaving their job after pregnancy due to lack of workplace support
→ Only 21% of employees believe their employer provides sufficient maternity benefits. 39% of employers 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 they’re doing enough… which still means 61% of employers agree with employees that they don’t provide sufficient maternity benefits.
Employers can design better. And the economy isn’t an excuse. Here are three questions that will help you find no cost ways to design better for working moms:
Does management place demands on people’s time that will lead to burnout? Stop giving management responsibility to people who don’t know how to manage responsibly. Demotions for poor management is a cost saving tool, and IC roles are no cost tools.
Do certain policies fuel time poverty for certain groups of employees and not others? If your policies are living in the 1980s-2000s, refreshing them costs you nothing.
Do employees have autonomy over their life-work juggle? Treating adults like adults also costs you nothing. Unless you are doing shift work or supervised specialty work (usually involving equipment or hazardous materials), there are very few reasons to manage by sight or clocking time these days.
If 45% of your working mothers are considering leaving, what are you going to do to fix it? And no, voluntary attrition to save on the bottom line is not a good answer. That short-termism gives you a failing grade in building a business that will last.