THIS International Women’s Day, let us take a moment to reflect. Are we truly celebrating all women, or only those who ascend the corporate ladder? Every March 8, the world emphasises women’s progress, with headlines often dominated by stories of shattered glass ceilings and opened boardroom doors. Women in routine jobs with limited career prospects do not fit this narrative. Neither do women who choose motherhood over work and ambition, or who would choose it if given the opportunity.
Champions like my wife, Helena, the founder of the 30% Club and chair of the Diversity Project, have fought tirelessly to ensure that women’s voices resonate in the corporate corridors of power. However, Helena, who has successfully navigated the highest echelons of finance, understands that not every woman aspires to that particular path. She equally admires those who choose to prioritise family over career or seek employment not for advancement, but to support their family’s financial well-being.
As International Women’s Day (IWD) campaigns emphasise professional growth and economic parity, they often overlook a profound aspect that shapes humanity itself: motherhood. This unique role, both ordinary and extraordinary, remains invisible in the celebrations. While Mothering Sunday (or Mother’s Day in some regions) has traditionally faded from public view, IWD has emerged as the day to honour women in society’s consciousness, albeit primarily for their economic and political contributions in the public square.
The irony is striking. On a day meant to honour womanhood in its entirety, the focus has inadvertently been narrowed to value only those paths that reflect traditionally male measures of success and power.
I am not only discussing the reclamation of space for mothers on IWD; I am also advocating for the recognition of the full spectrum of women’s choices throughout their lives. This includes not only the ambitious few who excel in high-stakes careers but also the countless mothers and grandmothers who prioritise and uphold the continuity and nurturing of family life.
Each year, IWD typically showcases celebratory profiles: the first woman CEO in a male-dominated industry, the female entrepreneur securing record funding, and the female executives breaking through glass ceilings. However, this narrative of professional achievement – one that my wife has powerfully championed through her 30% Club, which has successfully advocated for increased female representation on corporate boards – dominates our collective understanding of women’s progress. The implicit message is clear: true equality means women claiming their rightful seats at the highest levels of power and achieving parity in practice.
Yet, this laser focus on boardroom breakthroughs makes a profound assumption: all women aspire to this particular version of success. Helena’s own experience offers a nuanced perspective on this issue. As someone who has reached the pinnacle of finance while raising nine children, she has witnessed firsthand that the boardroom, despite its prestige, is not necessarily the happiest or most fulfilling environment for everyone, regardless of gender.
Lost in contemporary discourse is the concept of opportunity cost: what talents, insights, and contributions might women offer when liberated from the assumption that leadership positions serve as the ultimate validation of their worth? Celebrating motherhood as a choice that holds equal dignity and significance does not require a corner office or stock options; rather, it shapes the world in profoundly different ways.
Reducing women’s success to executive titles and professional accolades has positioned motherhood as a consolation prize, something that women ‘settle for’ when they are unable to reach corporate heights.
Today, this perspective has evolved into something even more detrimental. The emphasis on career primacy is denying young women the option to pursue motherhood. As more women enter the workforce and aspire to professional success, many are indefinitely postponing childbirth and, by extension, the choice of motherhood. Maternal anxieties are not alleviated by the misleading promise of egg freezing. This viewpoint fundamentally misunderstands women and the essence of motherhood.
The ‘superwoman’ executive, who balances boardroom presentations with ballet recitals, deserves every accolade. However, she is a statistical rarity. Most women do not lead such exceptional lives, or earn enough to outsource domestic responsibilities, or manage this acrobatic feat. They should not be overlooked for making different choices or pursuing alternative ambitions.
By highlighting rare exceptions of highly successful career women and presenting only one vision of female achievement, IWD devalues the ordinary, yet extraordinary and essential, work carried out by millions of mothers around the globe. What message does this send to our daughters? How does it shape their potential life paths, their understanding of life’s demands and desires, and their ability to navigate them?
Furthermore, motherhood represents the often-overlooked support that underlies countless success stories, the foundation of happiness and fulfilment that is seldom acknowledged when we celebrate visible achievements. It is time for our definition of female empowerment to broaden in order to honour and value this essential work.
If International Women’s Day is to evolve beyond its historical focus on ‘barriers to women,’ it must begin to represent and advocate for true liberation. This includes empowering our daughters to recognise that all paths are worthy and all choices are valid expressions of female agency and power, while also appreciating their unique feminine capacity to embrace the joy of being female.
The measure of our progress should not be the number of women in high-level positions, but rather how many feel genuinely free to pursue and achieve their own unique vision of a meaningful and happy life.
