The Motherhood Manifesto

Maria Cornelia Andersen

How women are still getting punished for motherhood in 2026

I have spent my morning rather typically. Woke up at 5.30, read some books for my son, prepared breakfast, fed the dog and played with her, took my son to the kindergarten and came home to clean the porridge from the floor.

When I finally sat down in front of my laptop, with a cup of coffee, it felt like I had already been at it in forever.

As I do most days, I decided to catch up on the corporate news, and opened Linked/n . And guess what, top and centre to my feed, there there was ANOTHER corporate post from a big company, talking about gender equality in the workplace and their new "barselcafe" initiative (parental leave network). Right there and then, I almost gagged.

I love being a mother to my son but I resent how companies see mothers in Denmark, in 2026.

Why the cynicism?

If you are wondering where does this attitude come from, let me explain. But in doing so, I will not bore you with statistics about income gender disparity, gaps in pension resulting from lost income during motherhood, the unequal gender distribution in upper leadership and on and on. Instead, what I want to share my own little micro-universe and, for all that counts, a personal anecdote.

In the spring of 2025, one month after giving birth, I joined a local mother group. I was super fortunate that the 4 other ladies were awesome, supportive and we kicked it off immediately. Now, more than one year down the line, we are still in touch regularly even though we have all finished our parental leave and went back to work ... or should I say those of us who still have a job, headed back to work. And this brings me full circle to the topic of this article.

You see, even though I live in a prosperous are, even though we all have at least a Bachelors degree and 8 to 10 years experience under our belt, we were not immune. Out of a group of 5 women only 2 have managed to come out of the parental leave with their job intact. Two from the group have faced some sort of restructuring and one was denied a salary regulation altogether, despite the increasing inflation, and the increasing bottomless of the company.

That is why, whenever I see companies clapping their own shoulders about how good they are doing, I look back at my small barsel group and feel ANGRY. 

It is not about whether or not things are done legally.
It is not about the notice period and the severance packages that one might receive.
It is about how crushing it feels to be a new mother, with someone depending on you for the first time ever - and have the rug pulled from underneath you.

Equality on paper

You can parental leave, you can have equality in the couple - yet somehow a gaping hole remains in career opportunities.

Yes I know, there are many entrepreneur mothers who made it, many women CEOs who worked it out and I am not here to say it is impossible. When I talk about fairness and equality.

I will not bore you with any of the official statistics about income disparity between men and women, gaps in pension resulting from lost income during motherhood, the inequal gender distribution in upper leadership role and on and on. Unfortunately by now, we have all seen them so much we got almost numb to the message. 

 

The Motherhood Manifesto

I do not ask for concessions - I ask for equality! So I have committed to writing a short manifest in the hope that we can all rally behind it.

I do not regret being a mother.

I do not resent my husbands success - he is my rock, my love and my biggest supporter.

I am not even unhappy about my own life and career.

What I am is angry. I am pissed off each time I talk to fellow mothers who were punished by the same companies to fill LinkedIn with post about equality.

I wrote this article to point a finger at something we all pretend we do not see: the emperor IS naked.

Change can not happen unless we are unwilling to have the hard talk. So I am sticking my neck out there, and I encourage all of you to really look around and ask yourself:

  • Do you know anyone at your job who happened to "choose to leave" 6 to 8 months after a maternity leave?
  • Did new mothers get a raise this year, anything above a symbolic value or even the inflation rate? 
  • Did your department do any restructuring around the time a fellow colleague heeded out for maternity leave?
  • How many childless women in their 30s has your department employed as of lately?
  • If you are in a recruiting position yourself, did the worry barsel ever even crossed your mind, when looking at a candidate?

Just answer this questions for yourself, and this will tell you more about the culture of a workplace than any People & Culture campaign ever will.

I truly hope that what I see is a relic of the old days and not representative for our values as a society. But I also believe that as an individual, I have a duty to speak up and be the change I want to see in the world.


That was today’s release from the Soft(ware) Side. Until next time, your friendly human,

 

Photo Credit  -  Markus Winkler on Unsplash