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Ketanji Brown Jackson is one of America's nine Supreme Court Justices. She’s also a proud working mom. Balancing the two has been one of the toughest tasks of her outstanding career.
Although the crème-de-la-crème role at the very top of her field is less relatable– who else can boast of having been nominated for their job by the President – her other job is much more familiar to women across America, as are the challenges that come with juggling them both.
In her memoir released Tuesday, Justice Jackson details a stark account of returning to work after the birth of the first child, describing it as “wrenching.”
Jackon says she “drastically underestimated the challenges of new motherhood.”
“I can honestly say that going back into the office as a new mother, and returning to the cadence and pressures of Big Law, was the stuff of nightmares,” the Justice wrote, describing difficulties ranging from navigating breastfeeding at work to feeling anxiety about leaving “at the unspeakably early hour of five P.M. each workday.”
Her raw and honest account holds even more weight when you consider the isolation, pressure, fear, and lack of motivation she felt is shared by working moms across America.
Working moms suffer from guilty, anxiety, exhaustion
Although many years have passed since Jackson’s experiences, and some progress has been made, research tells us that a significant proportion of women experience difficulties when returning to work after taking maternity leave.
A survey of 1,000 mothers by TENA found that 31% found it harder than they expected to return to their jobs after their leave. Jackson, for example, candidly shared her feelings of guilt. “[Returning to work] ripped another piece of my heart out to know that I would miss the giggles and coos, first shimmies across the carpet, and other glorious developmental milestones,” she said.
There are also challenges with how working mothers are treated by their fellow employees and managers. 14% in TENA’s survey said they felt anxious that medical issues brought on by pregnancy or childbirth made them look unprofessional, and nearly 20% felt their colleagues or boss didn’t understand what they were going through.
One in every seven women felt patronized by colleagues upon their return to work, and one in five was left in tears after only a few days of returning to work. These alarmingly commonplace experiences for working mothers explain why 52% of new moms feel worried about returning to work. Jackson revealed the “low-grade anxiety” she felt in her first job at a law firm while six months pregnant that made her feel like she had to break “inconvenient news” when discussing her maternity leave.
Employers must improve their support for working mothers
A 2024 study on Maternal Health in the Workplace reveals that HR teams and employers can be doing more to support and protect working mothers as they go through this challenging journey.
84% of mothers in the workforce agreed that more pregnancy, postpartum, and return-to-work support would make them more likely to stay at their company. There are many widespread difficulties that employers should act on to create an environment where working moms are empowered to enjoy the full spectrum of experiences that motherhood brings, without compromising on their career.
55% cited inflexible work schedules and the inability to take time off for appointments as a major difficulty; 67% named the cost of care as America plunges deeper into a childcare crisis. 66%, like Justice Jackson, said they are or were impacted by difficulties with their mental health.
From retention to risk reduction: How to deliver training to improve employee experience
There are a range of challenges facing people leaders when it comes to creating a compelling employee experience. It can be difficult to keep workers engaged, particularly where training & development is concerned. But whether it's compliance risk through mandatory training, or retaining staff through career skills building, it's business-critical for effective learning programs to enhance the employee experience.
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The benefits a more modern training experience can bring to the organization include retaining staff, addressing competency gaps, and even reducing compliance risk for mandatory training
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Official studies have found that one in every five women in the US is impacted by a mental health or substance use disorder during their perinatal period, pregnancy, and the year after birth, but this does not account for the swathes of women whose mental health difficulties go undiagnosed or unreported.
Employers must do more. Generous maternal and paternal leave packages are a good place to start, with leading international employers adopting global minimum standards such as London Stock Exchange Group’s 26-week parental leave policy.
There are countless other monetary and non-monetary benefits for supporting working parents that employers can consider, ranging from childcare vouchers or Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (DCFSAs) to implementing flexible working policies so employees like Jackson don’t feel guilty about leaving the office at 5 pm.
Justice Jackson’s journey is a powerful example of all that can be achieved as a working mother. But her story is also one plighted by anxiety, guilt, and frustration, shared by working mothers across America. That has to change, and employers have a crucial part to play.
