A certain pandemic-era benefit emerges as the answer to retaining working mothers
The majority of working mothers have cited flexible work design as the "one systemic change" that would improve their lives, in the wake of the benefit losing ground in workplaces as most employers move on from the pandemic.
Findings from Executive Moms' latest annual report revealed that 63% of working moms consider flexible work design as the change needed to make working motherhood sustainable.
More than three in four (76%) working moms even said they value flexibility more than compensation in the workplace.
"The data makes clear that long-term retention depends on flexible work design that makes working motherhood sustainable beyond the transition period," the report read.
Flexible work decline
But the demand for flexible work comes as most employers scrap the benefit that was once popular during the pandemic.
A study from the Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University revealed that overall working-from-home levels declined globally from an average of 1.6 days in 2022 to 1.27 days in 2024/2025.
This shift hurts mothers in the workplace, who rely on flexibility for their childcare needs. Data from LiveCareer revealed that 93% of working moms have been criticised for taking time off or leaving early for child-related needs.
Most of them (96%) also faced pushback for consistently leaving work at a set time due to child-related responsibilities.
"For working mothers, flexibility determines access to opportunity," LiveCareer noted.
"When schedules are rigid, childcare is costly, and bias goes unaddressed, career progression becomes conditional on availability rather than performance."
Data from Executive Moms show that departure of working mothers after re-entering the workplace is "cumulative," indicating that they try to make it work.
"These outcomes are not the result of poor individual fit. They are the predictable result of systems that rely on personal endurance rather than structural sustainability," the report read.
To address the problem, employers are urged to make flexibility structural in the workplace. This includes:
- Defining flexibility clearly, including hours, location, pacing, and boundaries
- Normalising flexible arrangements like core flex hours without career penalty
- Implementing asynchronous tools to track work progress and outcomes
