CEOs in Atlanta and beyond: Don’t regress on supporting working mothers.
We cannot afford to erase the progress we have made for working parents, specifically mothers, since 2020. To do so would not only undermine decades of hard-fought advances for women in the workplace but also jeopardize the strength of our future workforce.
I am a CEO. I’m also a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and an aunt. And like so many, I’ve struggled to juggle it all.
Throughout my career, I often felt stretched between my job and my children, unable to give either my full attention, or at least the focus I wanted. If I were excelling at my job, it seemed to be at the expense of my family, and vice versa.
This balancing act has led many mothers and parents to feel they have to choose between one or the other, often giving up on career aspirations because it truly was not possible to do it all.
But the shift we felt after 2020 changed everything. Remote work opened the door to a kind of flexibility we hadn’t thought possible. Suddenly, we didn’t have to choose between staying home with a sick child and missing a full day of work. We gained back hours once lost to commuting and used them to show up more fully for our families and our jobs.
Parents and children benefit from flexible work
It was not just a lifestyle shift; it was an economic one. Female participation in the workforce reached an all-time high after taking a hit in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, those gains are slipping away.
Just this year, return-to-office mandates have nearly doubled among Fortune 500 companies. From January through August, 212,000 women left the U.S. workforce, even as 44,000 men entered, according to U.S. Labor Department data reported by The Washington Post.
These numbers represent families under strain and an economy weakened by the loss of female talent.
Harvard University research, as reported in The Guardian, shows daughters of working moms are almost a third more likely to become leaders, and they go on to earn more.
Kids learn ambition by watching it. When parents work, they’re not just paying the bills; they’re showing their kids what’s possible and setting them up for long-term security and success.
And let’s be honest. As the cost of living continues to climb, two paychecks aren’t a “nice-to-have” anymore. They’re how most families get by. When we force families into impossible choices, we compromise the potential of future generations and the stability of our workforce.
Rigid work rules erode progress for families and communities
Rigid workplace policies do not only affect mothers. Everyone benefits when work cultures recognize people as whole humans. Flexibility allows employees to handle life’s unexpected turns, to support a partner or a parent, to protect their mental health, and still deliver excellent work.
At Morrison, we’ve seen that balance in action. We’ve delivered award-winning campaigns while simultaneously being recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Atlanta.
These honors reflect not just our client results, but a culture that proves flexibility and high performance can go hand in hand. Our ethos is elasticity, and it’s our superpower.
We cannot afford to lose the progress we’ve made. To my fellow CEOs: Don’t go backward. Protect the flexible cultures that allow people to thrive at work and at home. Because when we invest in working parents, we invest in children, in communities and in the future of our companies.
Amanda Forgione is the CEO of Morrison, an Atlanta-based full-service, independent ad agency that has served American Cancer Society, Coca-Cola, Kodak, Porsche, Samsung and more.
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