Our mission at Path Forward is to empower caregivers to restart their careers after a break focused on caregiving. Our work centers on shifting bias and stigma while uplifting and celebrating these women and men throughout their return-to-work journeys.
The idea started because many of us had the personal experience of either being or knowing a mother who’d left the workforce to care for her young children and was struggling to find a way back into the paid workforce. Our work quickly expanded to encompass any kind of break for caregiving – including elder care, self care, and more – and it always included men who take breaks for caregiving.
But it was clear to me at the beginning – and so much clearer to me two years into a pandemic – that so much of what is wrong with how we treat all caregivers comes back to how we think about mothers and women. I often say that how we treat mothers is how we treat women, because even women without children face bias related to assumptions that they may have, and therefore care for, children some day.
So when I learned that my friend Gayatri Agnew had started a holiday, Mother’s Monday to be celebrated the Monday after Mother’s Day, to both recognize and reimagine mothers in the paid labor force, it made complete sense to me.
Mother’s Monday is a day to pause and celebrate working motherhood and ask how we might collectively reinvent the relationship between motherhood and work so that ambition and caregiving can co-exist. It’s about tackling gender inequality and reimagining the role companies and society can play in supporting mothers and in the process better support everyone else, too. I immediately signed on as an ambassador for the movement. Gayatri also saw the alignment between Mother’s Monday and Path Forward and accepted a seat on our Board.
For all these reasons, and many more, I’m thrilled to announce that Path Forward will be partnering with Mother’s Monday in an even bigger capacity, powering this movement and inspiring a shift in both perceptions and culture, helping to redefine motherhood and work.
I also sincerely believe that the social and corporate changes that are needed to better support mothers in the paid workforce would benefit everyone else in the workforce, too, especially anyone with caregiving responsibilities. This movement is about making space for care within our companies and our communities. It’s about changing culture in the workplace to see and value care.
Do you want to learn more? You can visit our website for more information and download our toolkit, sign up for our Mother’s Monday mailing list for all of the latest news and updates, and make a donation in support of the movement.
Stayed tuned for more information about our virtual Mother’s Monday event on Monday, May 9th which will feature speakers and spark conversations meant to challenge stereotypes, uplift, and inspire action. We will also be celebrating and featuring stories of working moms throughout the month of May before we pivot to celebrate the working dads in June for Father’s Friday.
Join the movement. Together we can reinvent the integration of work and motherhood.