Given the disparities, it's understandable if working moms want to play down or even hide motherhood from current or potential employers. In fact, 1 in 4 mothers admit they're concerned about their colleagues' perceptions once they have children, and 1 in 5 women are nervous about telling their employers they're pregnant. Some of their fears are, unfortunately, justified: 41 percent of workers believe moms are less devoted to their work than non-moms, and 38 percent judge them for needing more flexible work schedules.
We need to tackle this stigma and condescension head-on by advertising from the get-go that we are working mothers and that we have additional strengths as employees: We need to put the word "mother" on our résumés. Doing so combats implicit and explicit bias by proclaiming that motherhood is something unambiguously positive, not to mention a common life choice. It also helps demonstrate that the skills mothers use to keep families afloat are transferable to the workplace.
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