Presented by Ally | “There’s nothing that moms can’t do,” says Allison Robinson, who founded The Mom Project to support women at every stage of their professional—and parenthood—journeys.
TRANSCRIPT
I vividly remember being in a conference room, speaking to my manager and telling her I was pregnant.
And I said, Don't worry, I'll be back to work in two weeks.
And she laughed at me.
Then I had my son and I understood, I got it.
It changed me in such a profound way.
And I didn't want to go back to the way that things were before.
I felt like that was my life calling to help solve this problem for women across the world.
I'm Allison Robinson, I'm founder and CEO of The Mom Project, I'm 34 years old and I'm disrupting the workplace for moms so they don't have to choose between their families and their career.
Being a disruptor is the greatest superpower.
There's nothing that moms can't do.
Moms have so much to offer, but the current workplace has not been designed for her in mind.
I think that we have not prioritized policies to really be able to impact the lives of American families and mothers unfortunately still face a lot of bias.
And the motherhood penalty is real.
We know that moms are less likely to get interviewed, less likely to get hired and less likely to get promoted.
So The Mom Project is the platform, it's the marketplace that connects 400,000 incredibly qualified moms with the companies that want and need her critical skills.
And this unlocks a lot of value in the marketplace.
43% of women leave the workforce after having kids. What is The Mom Project trying to do to reverse that trend?
So the first way is connecting them with great jobs at companies that really care and are focused on supporting moms with great policies, great benefits, --treating them with respect.
They understand what an asset moms are to the workplace.
We believe there's so much power in shared experiences and motherhood is such a common bond.
And we've been talking to the 400,000 moms in our community and what we've found is they feel isolated.
They feel scared they feel alone, they feel uncertain, they feel overwhelmed.
And so we've been able to kind of break down the digital walls to bring our moms together.
We have seen so many CEOs of the biggest companies in the country have put forth large initiatives around gender diversity, ethnic diversity, but have really struggled to be able to show progress.
And The Mom Project is a great way for them to show progress and diversifying their ranks at all levels within the organization.
Is it a common refrain that many of these women are treated differently once they become moms?
The unfortunate reality is yes.
At The Mom Project, we get thousands of letters from women telling us about the mistreatment that they've experienced.
This has really shifted from being a social topic, a corporate responsibility, to a business imperative.
Companies now truly believe why having diverse perspectives propels their business forward.
How do you convince employers that moms aren't asking for special treatment?
Their skills speak for themselves.
On The Mom Project platform, the average mom has college education, has worked between eight and 12 years and so for us, it's give her the opportunity.
She'll win on her own merit.
In addition to the mom project, you have a nonprofit that's really focused on giving people of color and moms of color an opportunity to improve their skillset and be more marketable.
It's called Rise.
It's part of our 501[c]3 where we're focused on helping upscale moms of color into jobs in technology.
It's a new program for us, Katie.
We launched it over the summer but the response that we've seen has been incredible.
There's such a need for this, particularly coming out of the pandemic.
They need new pathways in the fast growing fields like technology.
I understand the woman who's running Rise is a success story of yours.
Yeah, Chandra is amazing.
She's a single mom who has walked in the shoes of many of the women that we're aiming to serve.
And the work that she's already done is incredible and I can't wait to see what's next.
Rise is a scholarship program for women of color to be re-skilled, which means being retrained in tech roles that are flexible so that they can take care of their families and earn a great living at the same time and not have to choose.
So we're glad to be able to kind of add this new offering to help these women who really need it, both for themselves and for their families.
Allison, you have 400,000 moms you're serving now. Ideally, how big would you like to get?
Well, Katie, I don't think this problem stops in the US.
We have women writing us in Africa, the UK, China.
We aim to eventually serve moms around the world and reach millions and millions of families.