Working for Our Daughters

Hi there freemoms and welcome to the show today. It’s no secret that corporate America kind of treats women like crap, with men earning roughly 16% more than us for doing the exact same jobs over the exact same time. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, tell your friends that they’d have to work 42 more days a year to even the score. No thank you. 

What’s even more shocking than the gender disparity in this country is what’s known as the “motherhood penalty” which studies show accounts for 80% of the gender pay gap. So it’s not just women who are being screwed, it’s actually mothers. To make that perfectly clear, we are earning less and getting passed up for promotions more simply because we have children. There is some pretty scary research to support all of this. A Harvard study found that mothers were recommended an 8% lower starting salary than non-mothers which is more than 8% lower than the recommended starting salary for fathers. Oddly, the trend is reversed for dads when compared to childless men. 

According to a recent report by the World Economic Forum, it will take another 130 years to close the gender pay gap globally. Let’s make this perfectly clear, we are talking about paying women, and disproportionately mothers, equal pay for equal work. That’s it. So how can we fast track that trajectory and start to build a foundation that will actually benefit our daughters in ways that we are unlikely to see in our lifetime? Let’s find out. 

With me today is Lauren Smith Brody, founder of The Fifth Trimester an educational consulting platform that supports all working parents and caregivers to advance women’s leadership and build gender equity in the workforce. Her book, The Fifth Trimester, is a must-read for parents looking to survive and thrive in the tumble dryer early days of balancing career and motherhood.