It doesn’t matter if you are about to give a keynote, meet Beyoncé or network your way to a better job. Childcare often fails and when it does, moms are more likely to pick up the professional pieces. Weeks or months of planning can evaporate when the school calls, your nanny’s sick or grandparent care falls through.
Mothers are leaving the paid workforce (again) in record numbers often because they’re forced to. Traditional work hasn’t exactly been female or family friendly. The wage, leadership and psychological safety gaps are widening. Post-pandemic gains for moms, like increased care benefits, flexible, remote and hybrid work and other diversity and inclusion efforts, are being erased by many employers.
However, no one needs to use the old playbooks that lock mothers out of professional fulfillment and advancement. It’s bad for everyone involved, organizations shed talent and families lose financial stability. So, let’s upgrade one of the greatest points of friction to career growth post-kids, in-person conferences and meetings.
In Person Plays an Outsized Role in New Relationships
Every industry has its conferences, and each organization has offsites because being in “the room where it happens” is powerful. Sharing a lunch, laugh or insight, leads to deeper bonds than countless Zooms or emails. Industry events, however, are back in full force during the height of busy season. They tend to clash with childcare shifts, back-to-school, and in many organizations, budget season. That leaves most moms with limited options so, many ask themselves, ‘should I push past the barriers or just stay home?’
But Moms Often Sit Them Out
When moms have some agency over their schedules, they avoid or limit event attendance. Long days and early starts don’t mesh with household operations or childcare. And if you you’re called away early or need to cancel (again because of childcare fails) you can’t recoup time and mental energy you’ve poured into planning to be there. Interested in another round of schedule Jenga? Right, not many people are. How might we shift this dynamic?
You Can Update Onsite Meetings and Conferences
We know what the norms are. Early breakfasts followed by evening happy hours and dinners as designated for networking. Although it makes sense, they’re terrible times of the day if you’re a mom unless you happen to have a hands-on equal partner. Which statistically speaking for moms partnered with dads, is not the norm. So, most face a herculean effort to set up home life to run in their absence.
There are, however, many adjustments leaders, and meeting organizers can make to ensure moms have a seat at the proverbial table more often.
1. Please Don’t Start Before 9:30 am
Pick inclusive time slots. Between traffic, parking, flights and logistics for anyone dealing with childcare handoffs or drop offs, it’s impossible to make every early morning event. And it’s very difficult to hire for early morning childcare. Again, unless you have a partner, family member or in-home caregiver with flexibility, it’s not happening.
If moms can’t make it to the morning networking session, often the most valuable from a career building standpoint, they might decide not to go. Great thought leadership content is available everywhere now, from YouTube to TikTok so, in person is mostly about the relationships.
2. Provide Lactation Support
Postpartum moms want to grow their careers too and often need private, clean space for pumping or breastfeeding. Whether your event is at a hotel, office, convention center or stadium, you can support lactation needs. Dedicate space, provide nursing supplies, and refrigeration. If it’s an event for your employees please note, the pregnant workers fairness act offers legal protections to ensure mothers can maintain their pumping or breast-feeding schedules.
3. Make Peer-to-Peer Connections Easier
Create natural opportunities for new connections. Who doesn’t love making new friends or professional besties? If your industry or organization feels like an insider’s club, make changes. Host a welcome session. Enlist support from superconnectors to create thoughtful introductions. Ask people when they register or RSVP, what they want to accomplish at the event.
4. Only Offer an App if it’s Useful
If you offer a networking app as part of your event, provide training ahead of time on how to make the most of it, even if that’s a video. Seriously, downloading, registering for and then learning how to engage on yet another app is time consuming. And guess what, moms have very little discretionary time. Please use the app consistently for communication. Otherwise, attendees may ignore those heartfelt app introductions. If you want people to pay attention to it basically, you have to make it so that they have to, otherwise skip it.
5. Plan Your Location Wisely
Unless it’s a destination wedding or wellness retreat, reduce the number of planes, trains, and automobiles to get there. Yes, exotic locations are gorgeous but they make professional events that much harder to participate in. Time strapped mothers are less likely to go through the mental hopscotch to participate.
6. Consider One Learning and Development “Track”
Okay, many of us want to attend everything. Choosing among too many simultaneous sessions promotes decision fatigue and it’s disappointing to miss learning opportunities. For speakers, it’s also disappointing if they don’t receive the turnout they expected. Limit options or offer many opportunities to attend sessions with key concepts or thought leaders.
7. Take Audience Questions
Some events select their questions in advance or limit the Q&A to the moderator’s questions. Again, if you’re aiming for inclusivity, make it easy for people who are new to your industry or organization to feel seen and heard.
This is the season where many are still planning fall events and meetings. Make it friendly for moms and possible for those who care for children or adults to opt into career stretching opportunities.
This is part one of a three-part series on making professional growth work for mothers. Stay tuned, next week, we’ll share more including a sneak preview from my new book, Repair with Self-Care: Your Guide to the Mom’s Hierarchy of Needs.
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