This story is mine, and it defines what I do and who I am today. But I am sharing it, because there will be resonances of this story everywhere.
And that is why things need to change. This is why Careering into Motherhood is levelling up.
The first letter, typed on an old word processor, proper 90s style, is from the admissions tutor at Oxford University to the headmaster of my state school.
I still remember my mum bringing me the letter in bed that morning. “One of the best candidates for Italian they’d encountered,” “independence of mind” – I honestly thought they’d sent it to the wrong person; imposter syndrome starts young in girls.
But I could not have been a more bolshie embodiment of early 90s ‘girl power’ the day I strode into college in my DMs and thought the world was soon to be my oyster…
It literally never crossed my mind that it wouldn’t be possible for women to combine ambition with motherhood.
The second letter is a couple of years old now. I wrote to the prime minister to express my concern that not enough was being done by employers to help the millions of women who leave their careers. And when they step off the ladder to do something closer to home and less well-paid, the government claims this as a success because women are still in employment but it doesn’t account for the fact we rarely get back on it at any meaningful point.
Those meetings with the Department for Business went on and on, and round and round. And at every turning point they found a reason it would not work.
Meanwhile in the Facebook Group I run, there are thousands of women who have answers, have ideas, have value to offer an employer. They just need a bit of understanding at a certain point in their lives.
But I am so tired of waiting for employers to invite us in for a dialogue about what might work, for the media to stop stereotyping working mothers and so-called ‘career women’. I am tired of waiting for legislation that will finally acknowledge the contribution we make to the economy.
And so (taking you back beyond the 90s 😉) sisters, we are doing it for ourselves! Because from what I have seen in the last six years as a recruiter, campaigner, mentor and coaching provider, when we are clear about what we want, we tread our own path to success.
Careering into Motherhood is therefore partnering with female coaches who are committed to supporting working mums back to work and through their careers.
We’ll be bringing you quality content, all in one place, with free access to coaches who specialise in helping women, and providing a central hub for podcasts, blogs, live coaching events, Q&A sessions with professional coaches, and heaps of downloadable tools so you can put their expertise into practice.
If you decide actually some 1:1 coaching would help, you’ll be able to contact our coaches safe in the knowledge that we have checked them out and verified them; you can see what their clients say about them, what they charge and what qualifications they hold.
If you want to join us as a coach, click here:
www.careeringintomotherhood.com/become-a-partner-coach
Founder of Careering into Motherhood
December 5, 2021
