Mamas getting hosed
Our country’s totally sad policies around maternity leave – companies are only required to give pregnant women and new moms 12 weeks of unpaid time off – mean that many working women opt to quit their jobs in order to birth and raise infants.
When a mom is ready to reenter the workplace, she often has an awkward, unexplained gap in her résumé that make it harder to get hired.
Honesty works best
While moms have traditionally been advised not to mention their maternity leave unless asked directly, studies show that moms are more likely to be hired if they actually explain what they’ve been up to.
A branding agency, Mother New York, has come up with a creative way to help moms clarify the résumé gap, and to “make it clear that maternity leave – whether 12 weeks or 12 years – isn’t a vacation.”
The company is encouraging LinkedIn users to list their job title as “Mom” and their company as The Pregnancy Pause.
Hiring managers who click on the link are taken to a website that explains the unfair disadvantages faced by working moms.
Nothing to be ashamed of
According to Corinna Falusi, CCO of Mother New York, “New mothers in the U.S. often feel forced to quit their jobs due to a lack of adequate maternity leave policies, which leaves them penalized for the subsequent gap in their résumé.
We wanted to give working mothers everywhere a simple tool for this problem, and make it easy for them to own maternity leave as the full-time job it truly is.”
Besides a website, The Pregnancy Pause also has a LinkedIn page and a phone line. When a hiring manager calls the phone line, they’ll hear a voicemail explaining that during the candidate’s résumé gap, “she spent innumerable hours raising a child, which has surely offered her invaluable experience as a prospective employee.”
Listing The Pregnancy Pause as your employer can be a great way to explain a résumé gap on sites like LinkedIn, where the lack of face-to-face contact with a hiring manager can often leave many unanswered questions.
Full time mom
Women in the workplace shouldn’t be penalized for having children. Our federal policies and company cultures must come to support working moms.
Until they do, The Pregnancy Pause at least offers a way to explain maternity leave on your résumé.
#PregnancyPause
