Updated June 9, 2026 at 3:03 PM EDT
Increased empathy and resilience are traits often associated with new mothers.
But a finds that after returning to work, moms feel the biggest jump in critical leadership skills: conflict management, scheduling and communication.
, CEO of Mothered Media, said this data helps back up the framing that motherhood is a major life transition and developmental experience for women.
鈥�You develop new skills, new strengths, and that鈥檚 exactly what motherhood is,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd so I think the more we talk about what we know as mothers to be true, about how much stronger and more capable we are, the more we talk about that out loud, the more we can all bring that into the workplace and easily translate the skills we鈥檙e using every day and developing every day into the workplace.鈥�
You recently surveyed working mothers around the world in different career fields about how they perceive their own skills. What surprised you most?
鈥淭his was really interesting and exciting to me to read the results because I thought that these skills that would increase the most after becoming mothers would be resilience and empathy and team leadership. And those did increase, but not the most.
鈥淭he skills that increased the most were time management, resource, energy allocation, negotiation, communication, prioritization, conflict management, all these top operational skills that companies pay millions of dollars to develop in their leaders. And if you look up any list of top-ten leadership skills, those are in the top list. And so those are the strengths that mothers reported having the most increases in after becoming mothers. And that was just so amazing to see the real hard data behind that of like, 鈥極h yeah, I am way better at time management after becoming a mom,鈥� and 鈥極h yeah, negotiation. I could do that with my eyes closed.鈥� So those were the shocking results to me.鈥�
As long as there have been women in the workplace, there have been stereotypes and assumptions that professional women are stepping off the fast track if they have children, especially if they don鈥檛 return immediately to the office after maternity leave. Is that attitude changing in human resources departments or in C-suites?
鈥淚 think it needs to change. I think we鈥檙e seeing some data about women stepping back, but also companies not investing as much in women鈥檚 leadership development programs. And I think that鈥檚 wrong.
鈥淚 think the big difference between the women who are staying, the one who are leaving, is the support that they receive and the transition and return to work plans, the flexible workplace designs that you can have, whether it鈥檚 hybrid or being able to work remotely, managers who are compassionate and get it and understand the balance of work and parenting, those are going to be the companies that can retain these talented employees and these talented women in this transition time.
鈥淚t鈥檇 be the same thing if you went and got an MBA program. You came back and you鈥檙e like, 鈥極K, well now how can I implement all these skills I just learned? Or if you had a new hire, you鈥檙e not going to expect them to be 100% on day one. You鈥檙e going to have a re-onboarding plan, a support plan.
鈥淪o the companies that can support these moms in this major life transition and recognize it as a major life transition are going to be the ones that retain these highly talented, skill-growing employees.鈥�
Have you been able to collect data or analyze data showing the benefit of flexible work environments or having a daycare onsite or other such accommodations for parents? Have you seen a difference in the output and growth of those companies or how well they have done? Can they connect it to their bottom line?
鈥淲e have not had longitudinal or long-term revenue-linked studies with companies, but we did produce a feature of Working Motherhood report in January of 2026 this year, which showed that mothers reported that over two-thirds of them said flexible work design would be the single greatest impact for long-term sustainability of working, motherhood and balancing it. And so we see that continue into this report as well with a lot of the qualitative responses being that flexibility is key.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about promotions with added work, it鈥檚 that moms still need the flexibility to be able to take on more work and more promotions and more seniority without sacrificing their family time.鈥�
You left your own career in corporate America in advertising because you felt you were experiencing something called the 鈥榤otherhood penalty.鈥� What happened?
鈥淚 just felt that I was getting pushed out for my career, sidelined for promotions that I was working toward. And I felt that the career that I had once been really ambitious about was no longer the joy that I once found it to be, especially not at the sacrifice of working late and being always on.
鈥淎nd I wanted to build something that actually supported moms in that transition back to work and raised awareness about motherhood and working, motherhood especially. I didn鈥檛 see that anywhere and didn鈥檛 have that support for working moms either, and I felt that that was the impact I could make. I had this big shift in my identity and ambition and wanting to build something that changes the world and makes it better for other working moms, but also for my daughter.鈥�
This interview was edited for clarity.
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produced and edited this interview for broadcast with . Locke also produced it for the web.
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