Hello Mother Honestly Fam, you are joining 10,000+ mothers - professionals, CEOs, Founders, thought-leaders, experts, employers, and more as we discuss the future of motherhood and work, and how women and families can lead better lives at home and in the workplace. Welcome! If you are new here:
Wow, what a time to be a parent. I am sending my love to every single mom reading this because you are doing the unthinkable everyday in between loads of laundry, cooking, cleaning, and getting the kids out of the door. You are attempting to work in between, and doing the best you can to show up for your family. I am not sure how you are getting it all done, but you are a solid ground for your child(ren). Today I shared on Instagram how hard its been to parent in this fourth wave of the pandemic and the multiple school closures that continues to threaten our ability to work, to keep it together physically, mentally, and emotionally. Moms I spoke to are in distress. One mom said the right word to use was “despair.” She had just left her job to care for her littles who are sick and quarantining at home. Another mom said she is having her second baby in the pandemic and that its been tough to come to terms with that mentally. She is on an anti-depressant, and hopes that continues to help her through these challenging times. If you want to read more about what moms are currently going through, then read this post or scroll through those stories here.
So what does this mean for us? Where do we go from here?
We are beyond burned out, we crossed that line a while back, mothers are now at a critical juncture where we need collective therapy, we need support from our partners, employers, and society ASAP. And it seems like no one is listening. And that is truly the toughest pill for me to swallow.
Here are a few reads roundup of the week:
Signs of Despair From Parents of Kids Under 5
Some of the words parents used to describe their January 2022: “devastating,” “disgusting” and “at a breaking point.” The difference with the Omicron surge is that the upset is more concentrated among parents of children under the age of 5. Read More.
Who is paying the price for the lack of care solutions?
The new year has brought parents more disruption than ever, with closed schools, daycare worker shortages, and kids home quarantining, recovering or trying to avoid getting sick. As if that’s not hard enough, many companies have returned to an expectation of normalcy, requiring businesses to stay open and mandating employees increasingly to work in person. Parents; particularly mothers are paying the price for the lack of long-term solutions. Read more about it here.
Want some gems form some mothers who also happens to be seasoned executives?
In this fast company article, Anne Raimondi, COO of Asana and three other seasoned executives, all of them mothers, open up about practices they’ve used to help ground themselves and determine the path forward during some of their most challenging periods. Read what they have to say here
What do women in Australia hope to see in 2022?
Women are trailblazer all around the world. Doing big things and pushing boundaries in various industries. The women in Australia are no exception. In this Vogue article, 10 trailblazing Australian women tell us what they hope to see in 2022. Read all about it here.
Who are the women to look out for in business in 2022?
While women remain under-represented at the very top, the Business desk casts its eye over the biggest hitters. Some of the women included in this article are Larry Elliot, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Julia Kollewe, Sarah Butler, Mark Sweney, Kalyeena Makortoff and Lauren Cochrane. Find out more here.
What are the outcomes of male surgeons operating on women?
A study published in the medical journal JAMA surgery found that both male and female patients experienced better health outcomes with women surgeons. But the difference between having a male or female surgeon was more pronounced for women patients, who experienced notably lower incidences of complications, remissions and death after being operated on by a woman. Read all the findings here.
What companies are embracing comprehensive paid leave for employees?
As the movement to embrace comprehensive paid family leave gains momentum in the U.S., companies are beginning to institute—and advertise—their own leave policies. In late 2021, digital media company ’TheSkimm’ asked its readers to share their stories and experiences concerning paid family leave (or lack thereof). ‘TheSkimm’ created a hashtag campaign, #ShowUsYourLeave, under which users are sharing everything from back-to-work horror stories to tales of how their employers supported them through times when family mattered more than work. Other organizations have since followed suit, including Pinterest and health care tech company ‘Ro’. Read all about it here.
Why are mother’s the default class parents?
Last year, when Angela, a journalist in San Francisco, was Class Mom at her six-year-old son’s school, she attended a Parents Association meeting where something extraordinary happened: A Class Dad walked in. And then, because of course it did, the room broke out into applause. “I couldn’t believe it,” Angela says. “It was a room full of mothers doing all the volunteer work, but we are so culturally conditioned to just assuming that only women take this on, that we were throwing a ticker tape parade for the only man there. I give a lot of credit to that dad, but it points to the whole problem with our Class Parent charade—the universal assumption that only moms do it. Read more here.
Content warning: This article discusses the details of a miscarriage
Women are a powerful group in the workforce. According to a recent Bloomberg report, more women in the workforce could add a $20 trillion dollar boost to our global GDP by 2050. We should feel allowed and comfortable to speak up about the unique plights we go through as women and normalize the conversations too long considered taboo.
At a time when our reproductive rights and access to abortion are under attack yet again, it’s even more important to be more vocal, not less. For example, you might not know that one in four women has an abortion by age 45 because you hear few personal accounts. However, more women are sharing their stories in the face of Texas’ anti-abortion law (which the Supreme Court recently allowed to remain in place) and increasingly calling on men to stand with them” Find out more here.
What did older white women lead during the Covid-19 Pandemic?
The surge in U.S. retirements during the Covid-19 pandemic was led by older White women without a college education, according to research by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. The so-called Great Retirement trend that saw workers leave the labor market -- whether forced or by choice -- was driven by baby boomers aged 65 and older, the regional Fed bank wrote in a recent blog post. By contrast, retirements among those aged 54 to 65 was little changed. Read more here
We have 2 exciting events coming up at Mother Honestly this week.
The promise of web3 has taken the world by storm. Stop by for a moment on Twitter and it feels like you can’t escape some reference to NFTs, crypto, or the metaverse.
But what is it? What is web3?
Contribution and ownership are some of the biggest features of web3, which is why you - moms, women, caregivers, etc. - are so important. The first two versions of the web overlooked us and we now have an unprecedented opportunity to participate in the solutions we want built and make money.
Join Mother Honestly CEO, Blessing Adesiyan and Sehreen Noor-Ali, co-founder of Sleuth, for an Instagram Live on Thursday, January 20th at 12:30pm EST on web3 basics and what it means for you.
Mother Honestly will be highlighting amazing books every month and we are kicking off the year with my brilliant friend Eve Rodsky.
In this masterpiece “Find Your Unicorn space”, Eve is giving overburdened women a "permission slip" to explore their creativity and pursue passion projects. Much of the guide deals with how to carve out time for such endeavors, which she terms "the unicorn space”
Join Eve Rodsky and I on a Fireside Chat on Friday at 12:00PM EST where we will take all of your questions about how you can find your own Unicorn Space. Register here.
YOU GOT THIS MAMA!
This newsletter was written by Blessing Adesiyan, Founder & CEO of Mother Honestly. My best wishes for a safe and happy new year. Send any home and workplace news, sponsorship and speaking opportunities + virtual networking invitations to hello@motherhonestly.com.