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What if I informed you that there is a big pool of potential workers who’ve mastered multitasking, are remarkably resilient, emotionally clever and well-trained? They usually not often complain? Additionally, they’re simple to search out. Feels like a dream, proper?
These individuals are mothers. Mothers are affected person and hard-working. We, girls, expect it from ourselves.
Ladies stay underrepresented in management (nonetheless lower than 30% in C-suite roles within the US). Ladies are sometimes sidelined not due to an absence of ability or ambition, however by systemic and internalized obstacles.
The invisible weight
As a mother of two, for a few years, I lived with the phantasm that feminism had already received. They gave me, as a lady, all of the rights to work and construct my very own profession, proper? I did not perceive why it felt so onerous.
I believed that I used to be the issue, and no person else felt how I felt. I did not acknowledge how deeply internalized misogyny formed my very own notion of myself. How I self-censored that I used to be a startup founder, a strategist and a product builder. However I all the time wished to have youngsters, and simply as I started elevating my neurodivergent daughter, I absolutely understood how invisible, unpaid labor reshapes your view of value and self-worth.
In a current piece I wrote for Entrepreneur, I described how constructing a assist system for my daughter mirrored the construction of my startup: managing a group, setting milestones and adapting rapidly to vary. But nobody sees a mom making a schedule for her little one caregivers as a founder. And that is the issue. We do not body caregiving (even for neurotypical youngsters) — deeply complicated, managerial work — as management as a result of we have been taught to not.
Associated: On Momternships: Do Working Mothers Actually Must Begin From Scratch?
Internalized misogyny: The quiet enforcer
Patriarchy shouldn’t be over, it is merely gone underground — and ladies usually implement it themselves. Internalized misogyny tells us to downplay our success, to self-edit our voices, to view nurturing as separate from management, not a power of it.
I used to be at a tech convention in Las Vegas, and observed one thing bizarre. There was no line in entrance of the ladies’s restroom. In the meantime, the lads queued up. Often, it is the opposite approach round. That small statement hit me onerous. Ladies are nonetheless so few in my trade.
And let’s speak about expectations: girls are anticipated to carry out of their jobs, preserve the family, elevate youngsters and keep emotionally obtainable. And on prime of all of it, preserve manicured fingers. The double burden is actual, and it is draining.
Why it is a enterprise subject, not only a social one
It isn’t simply unfair. It is inefficient. Companies lose after they ignore how gendered expectations exclude half the expertise pool. Even in 2025, girls are much less more likely to apply for management roles if job descriptions skew masculine. And when AI picture mills are requested to create a “CEO,” the result’s all the time a white, middle-aged man (attempt it!). That bias is not the machine’s fault. It displays the information (and the bias) we have fed it, which suggests if we need to change the output, we have to change the enter.
That features our personal minds.
Associated: How Mothers Construct Empires with Love and Grit
Why I rent girls and mothers particularly
At my firm, 80% of the group are girls, and most are mothers. I rent them not as a favor, however as a result of they’re a few of the strongest professionals I’ve ever labored with. Motherhood teaches you easy methods to prioritize quick, handle chaos and preserve shifting it doesn’t matter what as a result of you don’t have any time to waste.
Moms are disciplined, emotionally clever and deeply dedicated. My very own mother informed me, “I would not have constructed my profession with out you.” And I really feel the identical. My youngsters did not gradual me down; they gave me an entire new sense of goal. I see that very same fireplace within the girls I rent. And after they’re supported, they shine.
What can companies do proper now?
This is not about rewriting your whole company construction in a single day. However this is what you can begin doing right now to unlock an unbelievable workforce:
- Audit your job postings for gendered language. Analysis reveals that advertisements emphasizing traits like “aggressive” and “aggressive” entice dramatically fewer feminine candidates than these highlighting “enthusiasm” and “innovation.”
- Supply flexibility not simply as a profit, however as a baseline. Ladies provided excessive flexibility are way more productive and dependable — 66 % say they’d stick with a versatile employer three‑plus years, in contrast with simply 19 % when flexibility is absent.
- Mentor — and sponsor — upward. A scarcity of influential sponsors, not abilities, is a main motive girls stall earlier than the C‑suite.
- Problem the bias. Whether or not in AI instruments, group suggestions, or hiring panels, be proactive in asking, “Who’s lacking right here?”
As a result of after we embrace extra girls, we do not simply create fairness. We construct higher companies.
What if I informed you that there is a big pool of potential workers who’ve mastered multitasking, are remarkably resilient, emotionally clever and well-trained? They usually not often complain? Additionally, they’re simple to search out. Feels like a dream, proper?
These individuals are mothers. Mothers are affected person and hard-working. We, girls, expect it from ourselves.
Ladies stay underrepresented in management (nonetheless lower than 30% in C-suite roles within the US). Ladies are sometimes sidelined not due to an absence of ability or ambition, however by systemic and internalized obstacles.
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