Moms can’t work without child care – period. And yet, child care too often is seen as an individual problem for families to solve. With original data developed by our knowledge partner McKinsey, we released a new report that shows amid the Great Resignation, expanded child care benefits can help companies attract, retain and advance women in the workforce.
This Mother’s Day, I am grateful for the gift of motherhood. I feel blessed by the inordinate support I’ve had that allows me to pursue both a thriving career and deeply meaningful family goals. My mother did the unimaginable for her — flying solo from India to the US to help with my first-born when I was a year into my MBA at Stanford. Dev, my husband, booked a room near the offsite location of my Touchy Feely class and brought my daughter Ashna over for nursing breaks. After my second daughter was born, time off from my career wasn’t a choice, both because of financial reasons as well as personal drive. Dev has often been more than the 50-50 parent.
The stats show that this is an exception, not the norm. In India, there is 42% female enrollment in colleges, 32% in entry level jobs, and less than 1% at senior CXO levels. In the US, women increasingly outpace men in college graduation but at the top we still see mostly men. ~15% of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies are women. While in society, women are not the minority, in our corporate world, they are. Even in the 21st century, becoming pregnant or taking time off can end a woman’s career — even just a year without employment can result in 39% lower pay. And a woman with a flourishing career and great potential has to start all over again once she takes a break of 2-3 years.
This Mother’s Day, as I define the pillars of the impact I want to make over the next decade(s), one goal is to build a transformative, high-growth company serving creators in the web3 world – more on that over the next few months. The other is to make it my life’s work to partner with the ecosystem to enable ten million moms all over the globe to climb higher in their careers. Once we achieve that, we’ll get to the next ten million, and then the next.
This is not a women’s problem. It impacts society & economies at large. I am thrilled to join forces with Ashutosh Garg, CEO & Co-founder, Eightfold.ai, and the father of two adorable boys, in this social impact mission. Plus, founding team members, Cindy, Deepika, Emily, Ishan and Parul.
One of the leaders I admire, Carolyn Everson, taught me to define a big bold vision and share it. It’s 42% more likely to happen if you write it down. The odds are even higher when you share it. This Mother’s Day, I’m committing to enabling ten million moms across the globe to climb higher in their careers. More to come on this over the weeks.
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There was a drawer in a cabinet in my bedroom where my mother kept the congratulatory cards she’d received after I was born. When I was little, I liked to take them out and look at them.
Women have faced significant obstacles attempting to climb up the ranks in the workplace. The journey continues to be fraught with many structural barriers that prevent them from gaining access to the same level of opportunities enjoyed by most men — from confidence hurdles, mommy-track narratives, boys’ clubs, and exclusion from professional and social networking to heightened barriers resulting from #MeToo, Covid-19, and racial violence. Women continue to struggle to find the support and advocacy they need and identify the allies who can help them.
