My son is 16. I have and still do battle with prejudice in the workplace around motherhood from the point I returned back to work I was swiftly made redundant for my role at leading agency in London. At the time I was a senior strategist in quite a high-pressured role it became apparent upon return that I was being sidelined, and at that point I decided to work for myself, since then I've had a few employed roles but these have never worked out as the pressure and prejudice have been too much to deal with pushing me out of the workplace back to being self-employed. I have managed over the last 16 years what I feel has been a bit of a hotchpotch career of freelancing and working for clients directly just to try and remain senior in my contribution and in my salary without having to work full-time... Yes I wanted to be senior on a part time basis.. something this sector does not like....it's really tricky in our sector as I'll see limited support for parents be that male or female, it makes me feel really sad that we have made progress ....but ...absolutely not enough I feel there is so many talented women who are resilient for many years and then just worn down by the system, and self-doubt. Proudly I carry on and I'm still working in a freelance capacity, have I reached the pinnacle of my career as had hope hoped I would in my younger years.. no!! Do I provide a good salary and work life balance? ... fairly much I think I do, but I had to step out of big agencies and I have had to be very resourceful and extremely resilient. Do I feel angry about the system and agency world absolutely! As I hit perimenopause... Ekkk 47!!! And my son is now more independent the challenge are changing!
I absolute love this, I know many feel the same way, thanks for being so honest! Accidentally just saw Vice report today along similar lines, great the topic is rising up, since nothing is really changing.. I live in Sweden and own my business, and while benefits are in general great here, being a business owner is kind of the only loop hole that does not help for mothers at all, there is no realistic solution to being independant and a mother...
Zoe, thank you for your insane passion, talent and championing this cause close to so many of our hearts (also side bar - awesome Canva skills). I really appreciated the research, nuance, depth of thinking and this mama copywriter found something that hit me hard in the feels and made me take a little breath on every slide of your amazing report. I feel seen, something that I rarely had the pleasure of feeling in 25 yrs+ in advertising. Like so many of the mothers you spoke to, I left the world of full-time agency life when the boys club became too much, tried freelance for many years (a softer option while going through harrowing IVF for 3 years), I then tried taking my big senior skills into smaller places so I could negotiate flexibility and walk my kids to school. A couple of years ago, with the extra layer of being over 50 and a tween mum, I decided to take my portable skillset and pivot into an adjacent career stream - still a copywriter, but in a marketing department, so infinitely different (light years really) from advertising agencies. Seeing older women walk the halls, seeing mums celebrated, seeing gloriously sensible hours, seeing flexibility, hybrid working models in play and outcome-based rewards has made this Gen X mother so, so grateful. The community and talk is necessary and I wish I had more time to bang the drum more myself (what mother has the commodity of time, right? And yet, you still made this happen, so I hope someone can make you many cups of tea in gratitude). Onward to a better way - and thank you. Look forward to reading more x
This is such a great piece of work highlighting an issue we mother's know only too well but can be invisible to those who have not experienced it. It's not only adland that this affects, but the majority of the working world that is set up on an inflexible 9-5 basis (and usually beyond). When I first returned to work after my first child, I was too afraid to mention that for a few nights I was sleeping in the hospital with my very sick child but coming in to work during the day as normal totally paranoid I would be considered flaky and uncommitted for taking more time off having only just returned from maternity leave.
Having recently returned to nearly full time work after a decade long career break, I found that not much had changed in the workplace in reality which was disappointing. I hope that this topic continues to rise in prominence to the point where the comments section under this type of article is not limited to mother's voices alone.
A twin mom here (and professional that works in the gender equity space!) married to an ad agency guy. I totally see how the industry excludes moms given that the grind that my husband is put through (also a parent) trickles down to me. It's a double whammy. Moms and women suffer within the industry and moms and women hold up the household for those men in the industry. Thank you for your voice on this issue. So so important.
This hits home. Only a few months after rejoining the workforce after baby, I realised my previous role (in a creative comms agency) wasn't sustainable if I wanted to have any quality of life (or shred of mental health), so I left. I don't necessarily blame my employer, who, on paper, tried to support working mothers. I think it's partly to do with the conventional agency model and broader cultural expectations that both need revising.
I became a mom in advertising over 2 decades ago. It was humbling as I was fired from the agency 6 weeks after I gave birth. I had been with the agency 12 years FFS!!!!!
I was told that in the latest reorg - I had no place. So I was out.
Frankly, I was so sleep deprived and rather out of it, when the exec account director fired me on the phone, I simply said - No... Seriously. I could not accept this was it. More to the point. I refused to accept this.
I told them I was going to talk to the president myself. I went into the office the next day and told them this was unacceptable. I also knew they were pitching a lot of stuff, so I asked for a reprieve on the idea that something would come in and they would need people.
They agreed. In the end, they did NOT get any of the pitches but this story has a happy ending.
They ended up putting me on small projects. This lasted a year so I got to be mostly home with my daughter. A gift I would have never gotten as a regular employee.
The lesson I learned is that fighting for justice and what is right - pays off. It doesnt get easier (bad news) but it does make you so much stronger (good news).
About 12 years ago I started my own adtech company so I didnt have to answer to anyone else anymore. And we are thriving now even though most tech ventures do not live past their 3rd birthday.
We did without much VC funding or fancy advisors. We did it through relentless hard work, unwavering persistence and a strong dash of anger at how bad the adtech world had evolved.
Becoming a Mom is life altering and taking everything into account - it is the scaffolding for a new self that is yours to own.
I was a young account exec in the 1980's when I learned I was pregnant with my first child. I was explicitly told that I had to come back full time if I wanted to be an account supervisor (like how to other supervisors work when they're traveling for client work???), and when I had my second child 6 years later, I was pressured to come back early.
It's shocking and so sad to me that this is still the way the world is operating 40 years later.
BTW, when I had my third, I finally started my own shop and increased my income 600%.
Being an entrepreneur is so much more conducive to being a mom than trying to make it within a corporate structure, corporate structures predominantly run by men.
Maybe we should all band together and form an agency called Mums, Inc. where we employ moms and market to moms.
Thank you for this work and for fighting for a change. Mothers that are students, mothers in science and mothers entrepreneurs, also mothers in venture capital world- from all these experiences I have personally gathered, are having a similar situation.
I feel that just a little bit of adjustments towards mothers, just as the simple ramp means a world to a person in wheelchair, would bring multiple benefits to the workplace, employees and future generations of happier children!
I hear you Zoe!! I love your honesty and openness. Every day there are more conversations about this topic which are essential for change to take place. Not only in the ad industry but throughout the entire system. My experience in becoming a mother has many similarities to yours. But in the end, I decided to leave the industry to follow a new passion that was born after the birth of my second baby; to create more awareness about Matrescence and support women through the identity and emotional turmoil that comes with this gigantic transformation.
Thank you for putting this powerful message into the world. I hope you got enough support in your own Matrescence journey.
Thank you. That means a lot coming from you. And yes, I remember this research well. I read it just after my first baby was born and it was both triggering and deeply moving. An urgent examination of the horrifically flawed experiences of expectant mothers and early post-partum. I felt it all. And of course, I adore everything that the team at Non-Fiction touch, it's always gold.
As a mother who lived through the ad agency years pre children, and fortunately flipped client-side post children, I get it. I went through the stages pre-children of being dismissive of parents who seemed to take so much time off that I didn't get as a non-parent. What I didn't see then that I see now, is that those were also the people who got stuck longer than they should have in junior roles.
Then I had my own kids and was embarrassed of how hard I was on the moms I worked with. Working motherhood is freaking hard, I chose to change jobs so I could stop traveling. And while I may have been client side, I was running an in-house agency for a house of brands. And yeah it was hard and I made sacrifices, I still make sacrifices. I also teach my kids the value of hard work and the rewards it brings our family.
What I realized is that I couldn't control the game, the only thing I could control was myself. So, I was forced to learn how to set boundaries. As women we think we need to do more to be seen as equal. We tend to do far more than some of our male counterparts who are able to stay employed and go to their kids football games or ballet class. I remember picking up media buys from the guys on my team that couldn't get them done. And I thought I would be rewarded for it (yeah, right - they just loaded on more) I am not telling you to office space it, rather teach people how to treat you. Teach them to show you respect. And learn to say no and learn how to tell your boss you'd be happy to help but it will trade off with something else.
Truthfully, when I saw your post I dug deeper to see how long you have been on this journey only to find that you are a new mom only 2 years in. As obnoxious as it sounds, I thought to myself "how cute, she is tired." As a woman who is 13 years into this working motherhood journey, I am still freaking tired. Just wait until you are done changing diapers and you are now having to review your kids Eureka Math homework every night. It sucks. The only way it gets easier is set boundaries at work and at home.
What does that look like - At work, leave email on your phone, but remove your chat app that way you aren't completely out of the loop, but you also aren't a slave to work. At home, if you have a partner make sure you are sharing responsibilities equally. If you don't have help, try enforcing a routine that builds in time for you to recharge, maybe it is a video yoga class (or kickboxing) while your baby sleeps. Only you can make time for you.
I get that you are frustrated and tired, and girl, I've got you. You are shining a light on an industry that is particularly demanding of and dominated by women. But you are trying to turn a submarine. So I stand behind you in trying to influence change, but I also encourage you to develop strategies now to help yourself. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.
Thank you for engaging with my post and for sharing your own experiences. I respect the length of time you’ve been navigating working motherhood and appreciate that it brings a unique perspective, but I have to address a few things in your comment.
First, saying "how cute, she's tired" based on my two years of motherhood is patronising and dismissive. This isn't a contest over who has endured more or who is more exhausted, and to trivialise someone’s struggles simply because they’re at a different stage is unkind and unnecessary. Every mother’s journey is different, and suggesting that my experiences are somehow less valid because of the time I've been on this path is neither constructive nor helpful.
It’s also important to clarify that this report isn’t about me and my two years as a mother; it’s about the collective experiences of mothers in the advertising industry, which is why I surveyed over 200 women at various stages of motherhood, from those with newborns to those with teenagers. Reducing this work to one woman’s "two-year insight" completely misses the point of the broader picture we're trying to address. This is about systemic issues that affect all mothers in this industry—not just my personal experience.
I hear your advice about boundaries and resilience, and I respect that you’ve found ways to make it work for yourself. But please don’t suggest that my efforts to raise awareness or challenge the system are trivial or unlikely to create change. This "lean in" approach that places the responsibility on individual mothers to manage the impossible load without addressing the structural inequalities we face is precisely why these issues persist. Mothers are working hard, setting boundaries, and teaching people to respect us—and yet the system remains broken. That’s the core of this conversation, and it’s much bigger than learning how to say "no."
I’m grateful for your input, but I believe we need to go beyond individual coping strategies and hold the industry accountable for creating real, systemic change. That’s the goal here.
My son is 16. I have and still do battle with prejudice in the workplace around motherhood from the point I returned back to work I was swiftly made redundant for my role at leading agency in London. At the time I was a senior strategist in quite a high-pressured role it became apparent upon return that I was being sidelined, and at that point I decided to work for myself, since then I've had a few employed roles but these have never worked out as the pressure and prejudice have been too much to deal with pushing me out of the workplace back to being self-employed. I have managed over the last 16 years what I feel has been a bit of a hotchpotch career of freelancing and working for clients directly just to try and remain senior in my contribution and in my salary without having to work full-time... Yes I wanted to be senior on a part time basis.. something this sector does not like....it's really tricky in our sector as I'll see limited support for parents be that male or female, it makes me feel really sad that we have made progress ....but ...absolutely not enough I feel there is so many talented women who are resilient for many years and then just worn down by the system, and self-doubt. Proudly I carry on and I'm still working in a freelance capacity, have I reached the pinnacle of my career as had hope hoped I would in my younger years.. no!! Do I provide a good salary and work life balance? ... fairly much I think I do, but I had to step out of big agencies and I have had to be very resourceful and extremely resilient. Do I feel angry about the system and agency world absolutely! As I hit perimenopause... Ekkk 47!!! And my son is now more independent the challenge are changing!
I absolute love this, I know many feel the same way, thanks for being so honest! Accidentally just saw Vice report today along similar lines, great the topic is rising up, since nothing is really changing.. I live in Sweden and own my business, and while benefits are in general great here, being a business owner is kind of the only loop hole that does not help for mothers at all, there is no realistic solution to being independant and a mother...
Zoe, thank you for your insane passion, talent and championing this cause close to so many of our hearts (also side bar - awesome Canva skills). I really appreciated the research, nuance, depth of thinking and this mama copywriter found something that hit me hard in the feels and made me take a little breath on every slide of your amazing report. I feel seen, something that I rarely had the pleasure of feeling in 25 yrs+ in advertising. Like so many of the mothers you spoke to, I left the world of full-time agency life when the boys club became too much, tried freelance for many years (a softer option while going through harrowing IVF for 3 years), I then tried taking my big senior skills into smaller places so I could negotiate flexibility and walk my kids to school. A couple of years ago, with the extra layer of being over 50 and a tween mum, I decided to take my portable skillset and pivot into an adjacent career stream - still a copywriter, but in a marketing department, so infinitely different (light years really) from advertising agencies. Seeing older women walk the halls, seeing mums celebrated, seeing gloriously sensible hours, seeing flexibility, hybrid working models in play and outcome-based rewards has made this Gen X mother so, so grateful. The community and talk is necessary and I wish I had more time to bang the drum more myself (what mother has the commodity of time, right? And yet, you still made this happen, so I hope someone can make you many cups of tea in gratitude). Onward to a better way - and thank you. Look forward to reading more x
Thank you so much x
This is such a great piece of work highlighting an issue we mother's know only too well but can be invisible to those who have not experienced it. It's not only adland that this affects, but the majority of the working world that is set up on an inflexible 9-5 basis (and usually beyond). When I first returned to work after my first child, I was too afraid to mention that for a few nights I was sleeping in the hospital with my very sick child but coming in to work during the day as normal totally paranoid I would be considered flaky and uncommitted for taking more time off having only just returned from maternity leave.
Having recently returned to nearly full time work after a decade long career break, I found that not much had changed in the workplace in reality which was disappointing. I hope that this topic continues to rise in prominence to the point where the comments section under this type of article is not limited to mother's voices alone.
Powerfully written. thank you
A twin mom here (and professional that works in the gender equity space!) married to an ad agency guy. I totally see how the industry excludes moms given that the grind that my husband is put through (also a parent) trickles down to me. It's a double whammy. Moms and women suffer within the industry and moms and women hold up the household for those men in the industry. Thank you for your voice on this issue. So so important.
"Moms and women suffer within the industry and moms and women hold up the household for those men in the industry." Something is seriously wrong here!
This hits home. Only a few months after rejoining the workforce after baby, I realised my previous role (in a creative comms agency) wasn't sustainable if I wanted to have any quality of life (or shred of mental health), so I left. I don't necessarily blame my employer, who, on paper, tried to support working mothers. I think it's partly to do with the conventional agency model and broader cultural expectations that both need revising.
I became a mom in advertising over 2 decades ago. It was humbling as I was fired from the agency 6 weeks after I gave birth. I had been with the agency 12 years FFS!!!!!
I was told that in the latest reorg - I had no place. So I was out.
Frankly, I was so sleep deprived and rather out of it, when the exec account director fired me on the phone, I simply said - No... Seriously. I could not accept this was it. More to the point. I refused to accept this.
I told them I was going to talk to the president myself. I went into the office the next day and told them this was unacceptable. I also knew they were pitching a lot of stuff, so I asked for a reprieve on the idea that something would come in and they would need people.
They agreed. In the end, they did NOT get any of the pitches but this story has a happy ending.
They ended up putting me on small projects. This lasted a year so I got to be mostly home with my daughter. A gift I would have never gotten as a regular employee.
The lesson I learned is that fighting for justice and what is right - pays off. It doesnt get easier (bad news) but it does make you so much stronger (good news).
About 12 years ago I started my own adtech company so I didnt have to answer to anyone else anymore. And we are thriving now even though most tech ventures do not live past their 3rd birthday.
We did without much VC funding or fancy advisors. We did it through relentless hard work, unwavering persistence and a strong dash of anger at how bad the adtech world had evolved.
Becoming a Mom is life altering and taking everything into account - it is the scaffolding for a new self that is yours to own.
I was a young account exec in the 1980's when I learned I was pregnant with my first child. I was explicitly told that I had to come back full time if I wanted to be an account supervisor (like how to other supervisors work when they're traveling for client work???), and when I had my second child 6 years later, I was pressured to come back early.
It's shocking and so sad to me that this is still the way the world is operating 40 years later.
BTW, when I had my third, I finally started my own shop and increased my income 600%.
Being an entrepreneur is so much more conducive to being a mom than trying to make it within a corporate structure, corporate structures predominantly run by men.
Maybe we should all band together and form an agency called Mums, Inc. where we employ moms and market to moms.
Who's in?
I feel every word of this in my bones.
Especially the first few paragraphs -- for the first time, I saw my experience articulated so clearly.
Thank you for this work and for fighting for a change. Mothers that are students, mothers in science and mothers entrepreneurs, also mothers in venture capital world- from all these experiences I have personally gathered, are having a similar situation.
I feel that just a little bit of adjustments towards mothers, just as the simple ramp means a world to a person in wheelchair, would bring multiple benefits to the workplace, employees and future generations of happier children!
I hear you Zoe!! I love your honesty and openness. Every day there are more conversations about this topic which are essential for change to take place. Not only in the ad industry but throughout the entire system. My experience in becoming a mother has many similarities to yours. But in the end, I decided to leave the industry to follow a new passion that was born after the birth of my second baby; to create more awareness about Matrescence and support women through the identity and emotional turmoil that comes with this gigantic transformation.
Thank you for putting this powerful message into the world. I hope you got enough support in your own Matrescence journey.
Love,
Jazmín aka The Mothership Coach
Amazing work, thank you for making this ❤️🩷
Thank you for creating this Zoe it is so needed.
Zoe, this is brilliant and brave. Thank you for writing. When I was at Twill we did this about mental health and pregnancy. It’s tough but maybe the most meaningful thing I’ve worked on (thanks Nonfiction Research) https://open.spotify.com/show/1QUJVCNtmoYEw4sjtzLBHf?si=guewezXURT-z2EJeB71jyA
Thank you. That means a lot coming from you. And yes, I remember this research well. I read it just after my first baby was born and it was both triggering and deeply moving. An urgent examination of the horrifically flawed experiences of expectant mothers and early post-partum. I felt it all. And of course, I adore everything that the team at Non-Fiction touch, it's always gold.
As a mother who lived through the ad agency years pre children, and fortunately flipped client-side post children, I get it. I went through the stages pre-children of being dismissive of parents who seemed to take so much time off that I didn't get as a non-parent. What I didn't see then that I see now, is that those were also the people who got stuck longer than they should have in junior roles.
Then I had my own kids and was embarrassed of how hard I was on the moms I worked with. Working motherhood is freaking hard, I chose to change jobs so I could stop traveling. And while I may have been client side, I was running an in-house agency for a house of brands. And yeah it was hard and I made sacrifices, I still make sacrifices. I also teach my kids the value of hard work and the rewards it brings our family.
What I realized is that I couldn't control the game, the only thing I could control was myself. So, I was forced to learn how to set boundaries. As women we think we need to do more to be seen as equal. We tend to do far more than some of our male counterparts who are able to stay employed and go to their kids football games or ballet class. I remember picking up media buys from the guys on my team that couldn't get them done. And I thought I would be rewarded for it (yeah, right - they just loaded on more) I am not telling you to office space it, rather teach people how to treat you. Teach them to show you respect. And learn to say no and learn how to tell your boss you'd be happy to help but it will trade off with something else.
Truthfully, when I saw your post I dug deeper to see how long you have been on this journey only to find that you are a new mom only 2 years in. As obnoxious as it sounds, I thought to myself "how cute, she is tired." As a woman who is 13 years into this working motherhood journey, I am still freaking tired. Just wait until you are done changing diapers and you are now having to review your kids Eureka Math homework every night. It sucks. The only way it gets easier is set boundaries at work and at home.
What does that look like - At work, leave email on your phone, but remove your chat app that way you aren't completely out of the loop, but you also aren't a slave to work. At home, if you have a partner make sure you are sharing responsibilities equally. If you don't have help, try enforcing a routine that builds in time for you to recharge, maybe it is a video yoga class (or kickboxing) while your baby sleeps. Only you can make time for you.
I get that you are frustrated and tired, and girl, I've got you. You are shining a light on an industry that is particularly demanding of and dominated by women. But you are trying to turn a submarine. So I stand behind you in trying to influence change, but I also encourage you to develop strategies now to help yourself. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.
Thank you for engaging with my post and for sharing your own experiences. I respect the length of time you’ve been navigating working motherhood and appreciate that it brings a unique perspective, but I have to address a few things in your comment.
First, saying "how cute, she's tired" based on my two years of motherhood is patronising and dismissive. This isn't a contest over who has endured more or who is more exhausted, and to trivialise someone’s struggles simply because they’re at a different stage is unkind and unnecessary. Every mother’s journey is different, and suggesting that my experiences are somehow less valid because of the time I've been on this path is neither constructive nor helpful.
It’s also important to clarify that this report isn’t about me and my two years as a mother; it’s about the collective experiences of mothers in the advertising industry, which is why I surveyed over 200 women at various stages of motherhood, from those with newborns to those with teenagers. Reducing this work to one woman’s "two-year insight" completely misses the point of the broader picture we're trying to address. This is about systemic issues that affect all mothers in this industry—not just my personal experience.
I hear your advice about boundaries and resilience, and I respect that you’ve found ways to make it work for yourself. But please don’t suggest that my efforts to raise awareness or challenge the system are trivial or unlikely to create change. This "lean in" approach that places the responsibility on individual mothers to manage the impossible load without addressing the structural inequalities we face is precisely why these issues persist. Mothers are working hard, setting boundaries, and teaching people to respect us—and yet the system remains broken. That’s the core of this conversation, and it’s much bigger than learning how to say "no."
I’m grateful for your input, but I believe we need to go beyond individual coping strategies and hold the industry accountable for creating real, systemic change. That’s the goal here.