Why are Working Mothers Turning down Salaries and Promotions?
- May 18, 2021
- 5 min read
Written by: Marilda Cutrone, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Overwhelmed by the changes over the last year, more than a third of working mothers declined promotions and decided to switch to part-time work or move down the career ladder.
Recently, several kinds of research and studies (done by several institutes/foundations) agree that working mothers doubled their domestic workload during the pandemic. Many women (one-third of the interviews) said they had already done or are ready to put their work growth on hold.
And, most remarkably, these decisions will cost them almost 2 trillion dollars.
It sounds like an unbelievable figure, but, according to many economists, it is real because you have to consider the loss of promotions and the loss of income by going from full-time to part-time, and you also have to consider these figures in the long term.
So, the pandemic is reversing women’s progress in the workforce and setting it back decades. Research conducted by Accenture states that there is already a significant gender imbalance, and now this situation will add 51 more years to achieve gender equality globally.
Besides, the pandemic also widens the wage gap. Until last year, women earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man, but now that gap is more severe (it is increasing by 5%), and women will earn about 76 cents for every dollar earned by their male colleagues (for the same job).
There is already evidence that working mothers take fewer promotions; in 2020, the chance of promotions for women plummeted (compared to men). This is a direct consequence of the fact that women asked for and received flexibility to work during the pandemic (to look after children or help with online schooling).
But this “flexibility” is fake and extremely dangerous.
Colleen Ammerman, director of the Gender Initiative at Harvard Business School, says that this kind of flexibility is actually a stigma: asking for maternity leave or flexible hours is associated with lower employment status.
Working mothers need to look at the current situation from all perspectives, and they need to analyze new possibilities.
There are other options, but one has to have an open mind to see them.
Why Female Entrepreneurship is key to Economic Recovery?
Women entrepreneurs, or mompreneurs, have a profound impact in the workforce thanks to "deep scaling," i.e., the ability to change unequal systems, recreate expectations, and overcome dominant (and now obsolete) norms and paradigms.
Three Reasons:
Women entrepreneurs can effectively contribute to global economic growth and poverty reduction. When women are empowered and aware of their potential, they can boost productivity and increase economic diversification, which is essential to achieve other positive development outcomes, personal and gender-wise.
Women can create an inclusive and sustainable post-pandemic recovery. Through education, up-skilling, and re-skilling, given the rapid technological and digital transformation, women emancipate themselves and pass on the same knowledge to their daughters and younger girls so that they too can have opportunities.
Women can motivate and help other women to start up an entrepreneurial project. When a woman can overcome all the obstacles in her way as an entrepreneur, she is inclined to surround herself with other women and motivate them to do the same. It becomes a challenge against the system, and victory is the only chance for them to succeed.
The pandemic has shown us how severe gender inequality is, but it has also shown us how decisive women's leadership can be.
Women and mothers who create and grow their own little entrepreneurial kingdom are increasingly common. The networks are full of such stories and offer good examples. Yet, the lack of visibility of these women in our education and work system contributes to a culture where young girls are not encouraged to develop entrepreneurial skills or pursue leadership positions.
And at this point, another variable comes into play: the traditional economy vs. the digital economy.
Many reports and research state that the most common challenges women entrepreneurs face are that men heavily dominate their industry, that they have been discriminated against based on their appearance, that they have not been valued or considered experts.
This is real in the traditional economy but not true in the digital economy. Why?
Why is the Digital Economy the Ideal Ecosystem for Women?
The digital economy and new technology create opportunities for women to overcome traditional business barriers, broaden their entrepreneurial possibilities, and build flexible careers that allow them to manage both work and family responsibilities.
This is true flexibility. Forget about the one mentioned above.
“Flexible working” means being able to choose when and how to work (and also from where) and does not imply a decrease in one's value. In this context, flexibility is not penalized in any way but is a way of life and work.
Moreover, the digital economy erases the gender pay gap issue: there is no difference in earnings between men and women. The opportunities are the same for everyone; the profits are the same for everyone. The concept of gender itself does not exist. It is irrelevant.
The digital economy and female entrepreneurship offer a systemic-level solution to a systemic- problem.
A balanced system of entrepreneurship is not only fair and equal but also creates more impact. And this is true because we have a systemic social problem, and it can only be solved on a broad level, as wide as the web and the new technologies.
Therefore, when we reshape the concept of entrepreneurship that finally includes women massively, we will create an ecosystem with more "changemakers" women.
"You could make a case that, along with the technological revolution, the most provocative upending destabilizing thrilling change in the course of human history is that we’re finally in it.… We're here now, women are in the world, and we will not be bullied." — Meryl Streep
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Marilda Cutrone, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Marilda walked away from a successful 20-year career as Senior Project Manager. For many years, she felt unfulfilled: she was continuously struggling to juggle her career and family. And eventually found herself drained and depressed. Marilda massively changed her life in 2019 when she realized that developing a new set of skills in the current economy is necessary. And here is why: over $2.5 trillion per year is being spent on retail purchases online and, over the last few months, there's been a 25% increase in online sales. By leveraging the digital skills, Marilda created her own business – Living My Digital Life – and reached a whole new work-life balance level. This shift would not have been possible for Marilda if she had not discovered the power of affiliate marketing. She is now the owner of her time and can build her career around the family (not a life arranged around the job as it used to be). Her mission is to empower other women to stand up for themselves and make the same shift. Hence Marilda offers a program that walks you through specific steps to learn the skills you need to create a profitable online business from scratch.
