Strategies for Navigating The Motherhood Penalty
Working mothers can recognize this penalty and learn to thrive in their workplaces.
Try to find and use a good mentor. She is someone in your workplace with good leadership and communication skills, someone you see as a potential advisor, who is older than you by five, ten, or even fifteen years.
My first mentor was someone whom I admired, and she had experience to share - like how to get promoted, how to get a raise, how to deal with my paternalistic division chief (boss). Finding my mentor connected me with a person more knowledgeable and experienced than me (by fifteen years). She encouraged my professional development and recommended me for leadership roles in the state medical society.
A good mentor will help you grow your skills, help you make better decisions, help you learn your workplace culture, help you problem solve, and increase your potential for promotion. If your workplace has a mentorship program, please take advantage of it. However, sometimes assigned mentors, or guides, are not quite right. Both personalities - mentor and mentee - must click to make the relationship work well. Your mentor really needs to care about you.
You may not realize that mentors gain from the relationship, too. A good mentor-mentee relationship validates her leadership skills, and she will become recognized as an advisor. You both will learn to communicate clearly and gain new perspectives. The mentor will enjoy giving back and helping you - the new talent.Talk with you manager about your family issues and your current motherhood and childcare constraints. If your manager is a mother herself, she will understand and empathize. If your manager is a father, he will understand slightly.
Women managers tend to provide emotional support to their team members. They commonly check in on their team members’ emotional well-being, and make sure that workload assignments are manageable. Women managers are more likely to help you navigate work-life challenges, and national surveys have found that women managers help decrease burnout among their co-workers.
Whether your manager is a woman or a man, talk about your promotion possibilities and what is required to get promoted from your current position. Make sure that your manager or supervisor acknowledges your current workload and past accomplishments. Make sure that you understand what is expected of you in order to be considered for promotion.
When you must work part-time, make yourself invaluable. Do more than your job requires. You must become indispensable, so that when a full-time position arises, you can grab it.
Kathy, one of my junior partners, started with our practice working full-time - fifty to fifty-five hours each week. After the birth of her second child, she requested to work part-time. Some of the partners objected to this new arrangement. Nevertheless, she was allowed to work 75% FTE and she became invaluable to our practice group. She took on the call schedule and several hospital committee positions that others felt were onerous.
When Kathy’s children grew older, she decided to reduce her work hours even further - to 50% FTE. By that time, she was so highly valued by our partner group that they allowed her to work half-time to keep her (happy) with us.
If you temporarily need more time off from full-time work, consider part-time work as a luxury. Once I had to deal with a medical problem that arose in with my adolescent daughter. I cut my hours back to 75% FTE for six months, which allowed me to attend to her care needs, transport her to therapy visits, and get some help for myself, too.
This sort of temporary need for part-time work may occur with any family crisis, deterioration of a special needs child, or some unexpected disaster in your extended family. Once again I defaulted to part-time work when my elderly mother broke her hip at age ninety-two. I had to attend to her medical and rehab needs (in another town), meet with physicians and physical therapists, and arrange home care once she was released from rehab. Finding home care for my father during that same time was also a challenge, not only securing a caregiver that he tolerated, but also organizing their financial accounts and finding the money to pay for their care.
Part-time work does offer some benefits. There is more flexibility in terms of work hours, which can be beneficial for individuals with other responsibilities, such as caregiving or pursuing education. Part-time roles can still provide opportunities for skill development and experience in your field, which can be valuable for your long-term career growth.
Clearly, part-time work can contribute to a better work-life balance, reduce stress and burnout, which ultimately benefits your overall well-being and job satisfaction. Part-time work can be a transitional step for individuals changing careers, reentering the workforce after a break, or exploring new opportunities.
Sometimes you need to change jobs to get a better schedule, better pay, or a boss who recognizes your talents. If you find yourself in a position that is just not right, more aggravating than fulfilling, too stressful, or one in which you are not being recognized for good work, then you may need to look elsewhere for a new position. Job changes are difficult, but not impossible.
One of the biggest changes I ever made was to leave my clinical practice in the NICU and go to work for a small HMO. As the medical director for this HMO, one affiliated with our small medical school, I undertook office work from nine to five with every weekend off. Attending meetings, reviewing data, conferencing with other physician groups, and traveling as an executive physician were enjoyable, and not at all stressful. For two years I enjoyed this vast change in my practice, but it did not feel right for me. I felt like I was working for the enemy and not using my clinical skills. This job hiatus allowed me to reset my priorities, spend more time with my children and husband, work on my marriage, and finally apply for a new clinical position in another city and state.
Be aware of the disadvantages to part-time work. Part-time work typically pays less than full-time employment, which can limit your financial resources and savings. In some industries, part-time employees may have fewer opportunities for advancement and career progression.
Part-time employees often receive fewer or no benefits, such as health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off, which can impact your overall compensation. In certain industries or organizations, part-time workers face a perception of being less committed or less serious about their careers. Acknowledging this bias against part-time workers …Part-time positions may be more vulnerable to changes in the job market, and they often have less job security compared to full-time positions.
Talk about your salary, from the get-go. Women do not, as a rule, automatically do this. Over a twenty-year period, my husband hired over thirty five physicians into the specialty group that he directed. Over half of the new hires were women. He reported to me that none of them asked about salary. All the men did.
Whether you work full-time or part-time you must be aware of salary ranges for your position. Very few states require job postings with salary ranges, hopefully in the future. The gender pay gap in the United States is estimated to be around 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. In other words, on average, women earn about 82% of what men earn for similar work.
The gender pay gap can vary by factors such as race, ethnicity, age, occupation, education, and location. Women of color, for example, often face a larger pay gap compared to white women. Additionally, the pay gap tends to be more pronounced as women progress in their careers, with executive and leadership roles often having a significant disparity. Again, talk about salary. Ask what others make in your position. In the United States, in 2021, it was estimated that female executives earned, on average, between 70% to 80% of what their male counterparts earned in similar positions.
Excellent Commentary and recommendations!