Despite heightened focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within organizations in recent years, working mothers still contend with significant workplace obstacles. From being passed over for promotions to struggling with rigid schedules, mothers attempting to balance familial caregiving duties with professional growth face systemic barriers known as the maternal wall.

New data reveals bias among managers serves as a major component sustaining this barrier. Specifically, Gotara CEO Dr. D Sangeeta notes, “Managers tend to make assumptions that mothers are less devoted to their careers or won’t want to take on more responsibility due to family  demands.” Mitigating this requires targeted action. “Specialized training equipping managers to recognize and override biases is key to dismantling the maternal wall from the inside,” she urges. “Managers don’t intend to be biased, but inherent biases are still at work.”

The True Impact of the Maternal Wall 

The maternal wall reflects compounding biases, triggering workplace discrimination toward working mothers. As a result, mothers are often outranked for exciting assignments, leadership development opportunities and promotions in favor of other groups perceived as more dedicated.

For example, Stanford sociologist Dr. Shelley Correll found in a controlled experiment that when presented with identical resumes labeled with parental status, study participants consistently ranked mothers as less competent and committed while fathers were viewed as more appealing candidates. This exemplifies automatic perceptions that mothers conclude place them at an unfair disadvantage. 

According to Lean In’s 2022 Women in the Workplace report, over 40% of women said they felt overlooked for career advancement opportunities during their pregnancies. Meanwhile, McKinsey found mothers were far less likely than fathers to experience accelerated career growth after having children.  

The implications span beyond just impeding individual trajectories. Research demonstrates that complex challenges benefit from harnessing diverse perspectives – yet mothers’ voices are muffled by the maternal wall. Further, dedicated talent gets sidelined, negatively impacting innovation, productivity and retention.

Overcoming Managers’ Biases  

Managers serve as gatekeepers controlling access to career-elevating assignments and influence advancement processes. Yet research shows they demonstrate consistent anti-mother biases, often unconsciously. 

A mechanical engineer working on a pipeline project was dizzy one day in the heat. Her manager knew the engineer was pregnant and decided to take her off the installation project without asking her if that was what she wanted. His intention was to care for his team members, but he overstepped in his decision-making.

A data scientist and new mother worked it out with her manager to work until 4 pm each day and then log back in at night from home to complete her work. She continued to deliver the great results she was known for before having a child, but her manager started giving challenging assignments to other team members instead of her. No ill intent was necessarily behind the decisions, but after a year, this stellar scientist lacked the challenging work she loved, and she left the organization.

A software engineer, part of a global team, was invited to a team meeting where the CEO was to attend. This was a crucial meeting for her to attend. She was still breastfeeding and worked out how to handle the week away from home with her partner. However, her manager told her she did not have to attend because it would be too hard on her and her baby. 

Another data scientist was passed up for a promotion when the leaders assumed she would not want to travel because her daughter was too young. However, the woman data scientist was very keen on that role – she was passed over without knowing why.

Without deliberate effort, managers tend to funnel promising opportunities disproportionately toward groups deemed as fitting outdated norms.

For example, giving significant facetime in central offices greater weight or presuming fathers will contribute more overtime due to perceiving mothers as less flexible frequently guides managers’ decisions on designating high-visibility roles. This compounds over time, steadily suppressing maternal talent from rising to senior levels.

Arm Managers to Recognize Bias

Rectifying this imbalance requires arming managers at all levels with education on the forms in which maternal wall bias frequently manifests and how to override bias through structured decision-making. Specifically, shedding light on common ways bias emerges and harms mothers enables managers to recognize when it may be coloring their own determinations so they can self-correct. This foundational awareness of potential bias allows managers to deliberately frame decisions around objective criteria.

As Dr. D Sangeeta affirms, “Once aware of potential bias, managers can deliberately frame decisions around objective criteria rather than gut reactions to ensure equitable treatment.”

Promote Inclusive Decision-Making

Equipping managers with inclusive decision tools promotes fairness in distributing exciting assignments and opportunities by countering bias risk. For example, managers can use skills matrices to match initiatives to talent capabilities irrespective of group membership. Preset rubrics assessing past performance on similar deliverables also introduce a helpful structure.  

Additionally, putting safeguard reminders to consider the diversity of selected teams or individuals within calendar invitations, tempering quick email replies if emotion is detected, and actively seeking input from people with dissenting views helps dampen bias. Suggesting team members occasionally swap roles even briefly also builds mutual understanding. 

Set Expectations, Incentivize Results 

Clearly articulating expected behaviors coupled with accountability mechanisms drives change. Incorporate both diversity metrics and demonstrate the adoption of bias mitigation practices into performance metrics used for compensation and promotion decisions. 

As Dr. D Sangeeta emphasizes, “Cascading top-down expectations paired with bottom-up accountability enacted consistently over time is essential for unseating entrenched biases across management layers.

Early Signs Training Pays Dividends

Initial research displays the promise of bias disruption education in addressing inequality faced by working mothers:

• Global healthcare company Novartis saw gender representation in management climb six percentage points to 46% among divisions where over 80% of leaders completed unconscious bias training.  
• Tech giant Google has attributed inclusive hiring gains to requiring all managers undergo bias mitigation content.  
• Financial firm Santander’s bespoke “open mindset” workshop addressing specific bias challenges faced by mothers enhanced participant allyship.

While sweeping culture change takes sustained commitment, targeted anti-bias manager training constitutes an actionable first step toward dismantling barriers for mothers aspiring to advance. Setting an example for staff by completing training first helps leaders realize true behavior shifts. Equipped with knowledge and tools to recognize and rethink biases, managers can make fairer decisions to tap working mothers’ full potential – benefitting not just women but ultimately also fueling organizational success. 

However, in many organizations, completing anti-bias training is just a check in the box. The best way to include anti-bias training is to build it into training on delivering better team performance. For example, managers accountable for delivering innovation can go to upskilling to facilitate successful innovation. Embedded within that content should be how to get the most out of diverse perspectives. Another example of upskilling in assessing team performance should be embedded with assessing performance based on results, not activities–a way to equalize across team members and reduce potential biases. 

Dr. D Sangeeta said, “Manager awareness training paired with inclusive leadership upskilling can help companies shatter the maternal wall obstructing working mothers from rising to their full heights, unlocking benefits for all.” The journey starts with arming managers to see their blindspots.

Published By: Aize Perez