Issue 25:

Even though March is #womenshistorymonth and Friday was International Women's Day, we're still a long way from equality for women. Here are some instances that stood out to us, highlighting the work employers have to do to continue building equitable and supportive environments for women and mothers.

Employer reprimands working mom for using her PTO for "unplanned" sick days (for real)

This week working mom Jordan Fairchild shared a TikTok video sharing why she was reprimanded at work. During her annual review, she said her manager and HR team highlighted the fact that she's used 3 "unplanned" sick days to care for her sick children over the last six months. Fairchild explained that she has accrued PTO and these sick days were deducted from her PTO, yet still held against her during the review.

Unfortunately, this is an example of the motherhood penalty playing out in corporate America. Often, mothers are held to unrealistic and unattainable workplace standards. Fairchild noted that her manager praised her work (she was sure to remain on target, meet deadlines, etc.) and only found fault with the use of sick days.

The motherhood penalty is the adverse impact of motherhood on a woman's career, specifically in career growth, promotion and earning potential. As women continue to shoulder the brunt of childcare responsibilities, their career may be adversely affected.

Instead of holding caregiving against a working mother, employers can change workplace culture. Aside from a parents inability to predict sickness (which is exactly why we have sick days! duh!), employers should instead gauge their output, work, and hold them to those performance standards. Employers who support their working parents can boost morale, tenure, and more. Read more in this white paper or download below:

The The Wall Street Journal really green lit this op-ed discrediting the gender pay gap

"The difference in wages is the natural consequence of choices that men and women freely make."

Yes, that is the TLDR summary of Friday's op-ed in The Wall Street Journal , published, ironically on International Women's Day. Co-authored by two economists (Mr. Early was the former assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics), the article discredits the impact of employer decisions, internal biases, the motherhood penalty, discrimination against women and women of color, and numerous other societal factors in explaining the gender pay gap.

Economic historian Claudia Godin won a Nobel Prize for her research on women in the labor market and how societal factors influence a woman's earning potential and career success. The op-ed is problematic as it reinforces stereotypes about woman's commitment to their career, about workplace stigmas against working mothers, and discredits decades of research.

Here are some reasons women, and especially mothers, and trapped under a glass ceiling:

1. Women are the primary caregivers for young children and over 50% of women leave the workforce after having a child, mainly because of a lack of workplace support.
2. Every child decreases a woman's earning potential by 5-10% because of a perceived and incorrect lack of commitment, lack of experience, and "career gap." This is the pregnancy and motherhood penalty.
3. Working mothers continue to be promoted at rates lower than their male counterparts.
4. Women face inflexible workplace conditions, leading to turnover and a lack of workforce participation. Oxford Economics estimates that 3,000,000 women can be added to the U.S. workforce with new family-friendly workplace policies, increasing the U.S. GDP by 1%

To say we're disappointed by this analysis would be an understatement. It's an insult to the advancement of women, and especially BIPOC and working mothers.

Performance reviews may need to account for FMLA leave

We're waiting for a jury decision in a case before the appeals court involving an employee who's FMLA leave was not taken into account by her manager who said she failed to meet "performance goals." The ruling may require that performance metrics be adjusted to reflect leave; e.g. if an employee is out for 20% of the time, then their performance goals need to be adjusted from 100% to 80%.

While the ruling will only apply to FMLA leave, it is an important area for managers and HR to be mindful of when evaluating employees returning from parental leave. Parental leave should not be held against an employee when evaluating their performance, output, and consideration for promotions.

New: our centralized Resource Library

We launched our Resource Library, a centralized hub with all of our freebies, toolkits, gated and ungated content, and more.

Join our conversation on Instagram on March 26th with The Educated Birth

We'll be joined over on Instagram by the founder of The Educated Birth. We'll cover the many decisions that go into labor and delivery, how birthing mothers can be supported during labor, why we need more educational resources for women of color, and more.

Follow us on Instagram!

See you next week!

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