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When I started recruiting in the Executive HR space, I didn’t expect to form such deep connections with the network of candidates I had surrounded myself with. After many conversations, one thing became quite clear to me: Female pipelining and leadership placement were in desperate need of change.
Often I hear accomplished and qualified female leaders say things like, “I’m not going to be equipped for that role because I have a newborn” or “I’ll have to take a step back because that organisation won’t support me as I start my family.” Women’s confidence has been rattled, and it’s time for employers to change the narrative.
I noticed patterns in the experiences and roadblocks of female candidates who were already mothers or planning to start families. While much of my job is to bridge the gap between these candidates and employers, I realised that these challenges are not individual but systemic. I want current and future mothers to know that they aren’t alone in their experiences and for organisations to start driving change for a future generation of female leaders.
When organisations are looking to place senior leaders, creating a job description is a natural place to start. But in reality, job descriptions can be limiting.
A strict set of requirements, like uncompromising in-person policies, limited health benefits (depending on the country), and rigid working hours, can cause women to doubt that they would receive the necessary support from an employer, leading them to look for roles elsewhere or enter the interview process with a lower sense of confidence.
What is a qualified leader who also requires a flexible schedule to care for her child supposed to do? Many women who have or are planning to start families fear that because they aren’t able to fit neatly into a role’s exact requirements, they will be discarded or judged for requiring a tailored approach, despite being a qualified fit for the position.
Jamayne Burke is someone who illustrates how these systemic issues can play out in someone’s life. She had a role managing the HR function on an Executive Management Team, before the business went into Administration whilst on parental leave. Now, she has found a contracting opportunity as a People & Culture Consultant.
For me personally, finding work at a senior level following parental leave was tough. I wanted to continue working in a similar capacity that I worked in previously (and worked so hard to get to), continuing to make a positive impact whilst being challenged and seeking growth opportunities. Yet there is a lot of competition at a senior level with many organisations adopting an internal growth and succession planning philosophy to fill roles. Asking about workplace flexibility could really hinder those opportunities that do come my way. In reality, I found myself digging deep — conflicted and questioning which values I’d be willing to compromise. Should I take on a lower-level role that provides the flexibility? Am I even okay with this? What impact will it have on my career, my confidence, my values?
Jamayne BurkePeople & Culture Consultant, Australia
Jamayne’s experience is not uncommon, and this is where organisations have the opportunity to step up to drive change.
Many organisations encourage women to apply for leadership roles from a place of good intentions, but if the employer is not also able to offer tangible support to those women as they start families, then it is simply not in the candidate’s best interest to apply.
Beyond the workplace, employers should view the hiring of return-to-work mothers as a community issue. As stereotypes about which partner should be the primary caretaker change, many men are taking on more child-caring responsibilities. Companies should acknowledge that they are not the only ones with a significant impact on a candidate’s home and professional life. The policies of a partner’s workplace are also at play, presenting an opportunity for collaboration.
To dig deeper, companies need to address things like second-generation gender bias in the workplace, which subtly yet effectively keeps women out of leadership roles. In fact, at the current rate of progress, it will take 134 years to reach full gender parity worldwide. A lack of existing female role models, gendered career paths, and a lack of access to resources are just a few of the factors at play here.
When setting out to fill a role, organisations should ask, “Am I looking to tailor the job description to the right individual, or vice versa?”
Try building a job description collaboratively after you’ve met a promising candidate. This can help you build instant trust upfront.
I won’t beat around the bush here — I know that many organisations don’t seek to drive change for female leaders with families because, if we’re honest, it’s easier not to. Creating systems of support for female parents in leadership requires genuine effort and structural change. But, what many don’t consider is that organisations have the potential to thrive or struggle based on how they interact with and embrace these individuals.
Imagine that a junior female employee observes a leader who is offered flexibility, balances her family and work life, and is able to meet the demands of her job. When she sees a role model of thriving female leadership, she knows that her workplace offers women who want families a steady path forward. This creates hope, inspiration, and trust in her other team members, ultimately benefitting the organisation through increased employee engagement, retention, and loyalty.
As women, we often hear “If you can see her, you can be her,” but unfortunately, many don’t have the opportunity to “see her” at all, instilling the belief that there is no place for women at the top table.
In fact, many of the characteristics that women, especially mothers, are often docked for are the same characteristics that set them apart as fantastic additions to any leadership team. Historically, women have been criticised for leading with emotion and sensitivity. Executive roles are typically crafted with men in mind, favoring stereotypical male leadership qualities, like assertiveness, competitiveness, and dominance.
I have seen women step into roles leading with profound emotional intelligence and self-awareness, which are not traditionally the top-valued traits in a leader. But, women are the ones who hold the power to create safe spaces within a company culture. Many act with a human-first approach, building trust and loyalty within their teams. Well-supported female leaders are redefining what it means to be a conscious leader, taking their perceived weaknesses and proving that they are actually strengths.
Not only are women leading the charge in emotional intelligence, but they are also thriving in traditionally valued leadership initiatives. The Ready-Now Leaders report shows that organisations with at least 30% women in leadership roles are 12x more likely to be in the top 20% for financial performance. It doesn’t stop there — assessments from over 84,000+ leaders and 1.5 million raters show that female leaders show up more effectively than their male counterparts across every management level and age level. Businesses also experience a 63% increase in profitability and productivity when when they adopt an inclusive culture and policies.
That said, if a female executive does not have the support she needs, this will be felt in more ways than one. If she is consistently working outside set work hours to keep up with demands, her team will likely mimic her behaviour, leading to burnout, resentment, and high attrition rates. This creates confusion around company expectations and what it means to meaningfully contribute to business goals.
When bringing a working parent onto the leadership team, the need to communicate expectations is perhaps even more important than with other leaders. By trying to fit into a role that was not tailored to them, I’ve seen it with my own eyes that women often experience burnout.
Prolonged burnout creates low self-confidence and a reduction in strong leadership qualities. Long-term, leadership identity will slowly weaken, creating a disadvantage to accomplish goals, meet demands, and inspire.
We want to set organisations up for success from the moment they begin their search for the right candidate, empowering them to create supportive environments for females, mothers, and mothers-to-be in leadership. Over the past decade, we have been proud to champion flexibility and parental leave for all, psychological safety and bias workshops, and moves away from traditional meritocracy practices to evaluations based on performance and potential.
A key part of this process is creating a safe space from start to finish. I like to understand more than just a candidate’s career ambitions. When I learn about someone’s family holidays, adjustment to life with a newborn, and upcoming goals – both personal and professional – I get a sense of who they are as a human being. And, more importantly, I support them. I’ve found that it’s pretty impossible not to care about someone’s success when you know the details of who they are.
This is where my role as an advocate comes in. Before the self-doubt creeps in, I reassure candidates that they are qualified and deserving of a role that suits their life — they can “have it all” with the right support.
From there, it’s about finding the right match between candidates who are hungry to represent this next generation of female leaders and companies that are eager to move the needle forward. It’s a two-way street with each party doing what it can to move things in the right direction.
I’d be lying if I said it’s always easy to find the right fit, but it’s possible and worth fighting for. Jamayne, who shared her experience earlier, is the perfect example of this. She very kindly commented:
Thankfully, I had an amazing executive recruitment partner who introduced me to an opportunity where I could continue to fulfill my why, ‘to make a positive impact on the business and their people’ where I could continue to be challenged whilst also balancing my family commitments.
If I could give advice to females, mothers, and mothers-to-be who are seeking leadership roles: be very clear about what you want and what your boundaries are. Of course, these are boundaries that need to be shared with your potential employer, but it’s just as important – if not more – to be honest with yourself.
When you’re driven by a need to prove yourself, unfortunately, it often leads to resentment and burnout. Instead, get specific about what your ideal week looks like. Do you work from the office on Mondays and opt for shorter in-office hours for the rest of the week? Do you limit meetings on Wednesdays so you can pick up your kids from their extracurricular activities? When you start with the specifics, you filter potential matches with more precision.
I also encourage women to rethink what being a “good leader” means to them. You don’t need to compromise your values to fit the standard idea of a leader, which is the beauty of conscious leadership. Just because it has been done a certain way for years doesn’t mean that the industry can’t change.
So by now, it’s pretty clear that leaders who are mothers can be massively beneficial to a team. However, it should also be clear that there is much work to be done to support women with families. Creating a strong female leadership pipeline isn’t a women’s issue, it’s an organisational responsibility. So how can employers drive change?
Start with a human-first approach. Instead of jumping straight into a focused job description, begin by taking a step back to ask yourself more global questions. For example:
Begin by getting a holistic sense of your ideal person, not just the side of them who shows up to work. Then, shift any preconceived notions you may have about outcome vs. output.
Many organisations assume that because the output of mothers may look a bit different than the typical 9-to-5 approach that the outcome will also be negatively impacted. The opposite is actually true. When women are able to blend their personal and professional commitments through a tailored role, they are able to step into their full leadership potential. At the end of the day, hiring and supporting mothers and women starting families is not just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do.
If you are a mother, a woman planning to start a family, or an organisation seeking to drive change, reach out to your local Page Executive team to find the right match and move the needle forward.
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