BabyStep Magazine: Let’s Drop the Motherhood Penalty

Recent article for BabyStep Magazine, discussing the concerning normalisation of The Motherhood Penalty.

What’s the worst thing you could do at work? Get caught out on Zoom in your PJs? Spend all day on Whatsapp Web? Sending the email bitching about your boss, to your boss? Unsurprisingly, making these moves in the office is unlikely to get you promoted. In fact, it would hinder your chances of progressing very far. When it comes to acts of anarchy in the workplace, a recent animation by Swedish director Anna Mantzaris presents a vision of chaos we can only daydream about on boring Mondays. In the short stop-motion film, a misbehaving protagonist unapologetically causes havoc among her co-workers.

But behind the film’s loveable woolly characters lies an alarming message. Produced for New Zealand charity Global Women, it holds a spotlight on the so-called ‘Motherhood Penalty’, concluding that however ‘career-limiting’ these acts of sabotage might be, almost none of them are as detrimental to a woman’s career as having a baby.

Read the full article for BabyStep here

Images: Anna Mantzaris, Passion Animation Studios and Saatchi & Saatchi: Career Limiting Move (Copyright © Global Women, 2021)