Working mothers are still being left out of career growth. How we can fix that

It’s a tale as old as the modern workplace: In the 1960s, women entered the workforce en masse, ready to compete with their male counterparts for promotions, pay, and opportunity—only to find the system wasn’t built for them. 

Today, women comprise almost half of the U.S. labor force. The playing field looks different now, but the fight for equal access hasn’t gone away. It just moved into subtler territory. 

Companies make quiet calculations about who’s worth “investing in,” says Corinne Low, gender economist and associate business professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. 

Women often face career penalties in anticipation of motherhood as employers presume they’re more likely to take leave or step back. Once in their 40s, “past” childbearing, this bias fades.

But not before it’s done damage.

The cost of inaction is huge: 4 out of 10 mothers in the first five years after childbirth resign. In 2025, around 400,000 mothers with young children resigned from the U.S. workforce—the sharpest decline in more than 40 years. 

Mothers face a training penalty that hinders their career advancement

On average, data shows women working full-time only earn 83% of a man’s median annual salary. Mothers face even worse odds—their pay is often reduced by 3% for every child they have. 

A new study from the University of Connecticut finds that, one to three years after childbirth, women are 17% to 22% less likely to receive on-the-job training opportunities, such as seminars, workshops, and development programs, compared with a 3% to 8% decline for men who became fathers. 

The result is a hidden skills and promotion gap that may explain nearly a third of the motherhood wage penalty. 

When women have children, they’re viewed as less committed or competent, research shows—a bias that leads employers to assume mothers are too busy, distracted, or disinterested to participate in training opportunities.

This is called “benevolent prescriptive stereotyping,” and it doesn’t do mothers any favors, says Joan C. Williams, distinguished professor of law emerita and founding director of the Equality Action Center at UC Law San Francisco. 

As Williams points out: “If you don’t get work, you eventually either get laid off because you’re not progressing, or you leave because you’re disgusted that you don’t get good work. Or you just stall out.” 

If a mother turns down an opportunity for training or advancement, it’s important to circle back—not to assume it’s a permanent no, says Williams. She also recommends employers keep track of who receives opportunities in their workplace—and who doesn’t. 

Supporting mothers isn’t a charity case

Another opportunity mothers are often left out of is informal networking, like happy hours, dinners, or travel, says Kate Westlund Tovsen, founder of Society of Working Moms, a supportive community for and by working mothers. Even if a mother can’t attend, “It’s nice to be invited,” Tovsen adds, who suggests teams try daytime coffee hours as a caregiver-friendly option. 

Mothers are forced to be proactive, as many companies lack frameworks to support leave or reintegration, Williams cautions. She advises scheduling meetings with superiors before and after taking family leave to make a plan. And though being a new mother is a relatively short blip on a woman’s career, companies often make “permanent decisions in terms of who they’re investing in based on this kind of temporary period when women are most squeezed,” says Low. 

Supporting mothers is not a charity case, she argues, but a competitive edge that lets them retain talent long term. 

“Caregiver strategies and investments, including benefits and return-to-work programs, deliver measurable business returns,” states Jess Ringgenberg, professional certified coach and CEO of Elxir, an advisory firm focusing on caregivers in the workplace.

“Companies see three to six times ROI through higher retention, productivity, and lower absenteeism” with such programs, Ringgenberg says. Replacing a mid-level caregiver comes with backfill, training, and ramp-up expenses that can reach $200,000, says Ringgenberg, or totaling twice the employee’s annual salary. 

But some companies are already working hard to help mothers succeed—and it’s paying off. 

Small and large companies finding solutions

Frontier Co-op, an Iowa-based wholesaler of natural and organic products with around 580 employees, created the Breaking Down Barriers to Employment initiative, which includes an on-site childcare center, subsidized to $120 per week per child. 

Their childcare program enables parents to participate in training programs and developmental opportunities that might otherwise be missed, explains Megan Schulte, vice president of human resources. 

She says 100% of new parents returned to work after their parental leave. 

While Frontier Co-op eases the logistical strains of childcare, Brigade Events, a woman-owned and operated event strategy and management company in Dallas with 10 full-time employees, tackles rebuilding confidence and access for women who stepped out. The company views its mentorship and project-based work model as a form of retraining, recognizing women’s existing expertise, rather than resetting them to zero. Senior employees work on a hybrid schedule—three days from home, two in-office—to preserve collaboration while creating space for caregiving. 

Brigade doesn’t bat an eye at blocked calendars for a child’s doctor appointment or school event. “Our whole culture is giving grace to each other,” says April Zorsky, partner and chief creative officer. 

One of their policies is that mothers returning from their 16-week maternity leave take a “transition month” working at 50% capacity. This can mean working from home, setting their own schedules, and easing back in without penalty. “As moms, we feel it’s crucial to have flexibility,” says Zorksy. 

Larger companies can learn to be more flexible and collaborative, too, says Marissa Andrade, a veteran HR executive and former chief people officer at Chipotle.

She recalls when one of her field managers chose to take a six-month maternity leave during a period of company-wide turnaround. Before she left, she requested an interim hire from the Mom Project, a digital platform that helps companies to hire skilled mothers, to support her leave. It went so smoothly that the field manager was able to reenter without missing a beat. 

Andrada recommends establishing employee–business resource groups. At Chipotle, one employee-created group, “The Hustle” (Humans United to Support the Ladies Experience), formed a maternity program to keep employees in the loop while on leave, and reoriented them on compliance and training updates on their return. 

“Don’t overlook the power of your employees as your consumer,” says Andrada.

When companies invite access for mothers—to training, to support, to opportunities that just don’t reacclimate them to their roles, but get them to thrive in them—everyone wins. 

Mothers aren’t just reentering the workforce with confidence. Employers are retaining their talent, too.

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