The Trade-offs & gains of working motherhood
Motherhood costs a career something. It also gives something back. Both are true.
We asked 544 working mothers in 20+ countries what motherhood has cost their careers, and what it has given them.
key findings
94% Report a Career Cost because of Motherhood
of working mothers turned down a career or business opportunity because of motherhood.
73%
accepted lower pay, a smaller role or fewer hours than they wanted.
72%
say motherhood has helped their career. 32% can name a specific example.
70%
report both a career cost and a career gain from motherhood.
68%
report or suspect they faced bias at work because they are mothers.
78%
88%
of working mothers at director level and above report or suspect bias.
The idea behind the research
Most talk about working motherhood picks a side. Either motherhood hurts your career, or it makes you better at it.
We think that’s the wrong way to look at it. When we asked the same women about both, they didn’t split into two groups. They described the same careers: an opportunity turned down, and a client won because of how they handle pressure. A smaller role taken, and a level of trust that takes other people years to build.
A gain doesn’t cancel out a cost. A mother can win a client and miss a promotion in the same quarter. But when workplaces only count one side, they miss half of what mothers go through. They see the leave, the shorter week, the time off. They rarely count the good judgment, speed and trust mothers bring back.
what we found
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Close to three in four turned down opportunities. About the same share took lower pay, a smaller role or fewer hours. And 70% say motherhood has helped their career.
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Only 32% could point to a specific example. Another 38% said motherhood may have helped, but they couldn’t say it made the difference. In their own words, the gains are trust, credibility and better judgment. Those don’t show up on a résumé.
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Only about 1 in 4 said it was stated or clearly implied. The rest believed it was there, or saw signs of it, but nobody said it.
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88% of mothers at director level and above report or suspect bias. It also grows with family size: 72% for mothers of one child, and 91% for mothers of three or more.
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54% say flexible or remote work helped them, and 47% still name it as the single change they need. A job can be flexible on paper and not in practice.
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19% named childcare as the single change that would help their careers most. Only 1% said employer-provided childcare was what had helped them.
What to do with this report
Employers: Check that flexible and part-time roles aren’t paying mothers less or leaving them out of key meetings. Pay senior part-time roles at senior rates.
Policymakers: Enforce the rules that already protect pregnant women and mothers on leave from being dismissed. Pay for childcare in the early years, when mothers need it most.
Mothers: Put what motherhood taught you in writing: in your résumé, your pitches and your reviews. When you ask for flexibility, negotiate the workload and the pay, not just the hours.
The Full Report Includes…
What the gains look like, in mothers’ own words: the kinds of gains they described, and why some are easy to name while others are hard
Bias by career level, number of children and age of the youngest child, in full
Who needs childcare most: by number of children, work status and age of the youngest child
Clear next steps for employers, policymakers and mothers
29 pages of findings, analysis and recommendations on what motherhood costs a career, what it gives back, and what would help
Our Partners
Mothered Media thanks our principal partners for supporting this research and believing that improving working motherhood requires collective effort.
Published by Mothered Media
A global research, media, and advocacy platform exploring how motherhood transforms leadership, work, identity, and culture.
Press inquiries: Email Alexa Starks, alexa@motheredmedia.com