These 5 trends are changing the way society views motherhood

The conversation about motherhood has experienced a profound change in the last 10 years. In many ways, this change reflects other factors – how society views gender roles, family dynamics and equality in the workplace. From the growing recognition of unpaid work to the search for jobs that genuinely support working mothers, the narrative surrounding parenting—especially motherhood—has changed in ways that were unimaginable even a decade ago.

Parenting experts point to five key trends driving this development.

1. We better understand the financial benefit of supporting mothers in the workplace.

The pandemic accelerated the discussion about the challenges of reconciling work and motherhood, especially as remote work and caregiving responsibilities increase. Advocacy for parental leave policies, child care support and workplace flexibility has gained momentum with a focus on how these issues disproportionately affect mothers.

Author and activist Lauren Smith Brody, who published Fifth trimester in 2017, has been at the forefront of this debate. In her book, she often uses the phrase “returning to work after maternity leave”. Now he deliberately changes his wording to “back”. paid work after maternity leave.”

“All mothers work and all work counts,” Brody told me, “paid or unpaid, it all counts. 41 percent of families have a primary or single mother.”

Brody has also expanded his research to include caregivers of all genders and stages of the five-generation workforce. Through her work with organizations and her role as the founder of the non-partisan national non-profit Chamber of Mothers, she pushes for systemic change.

“By supporting all caregivers, we elevate the often invisible work of women and help promote gender equality,” she explains.

Christine Michel Carter, author and advocate for working mothers, believes the pandemic marked a turning point in how society views working parents.

“It forced companies to prioritize policies that had previously been dismissed as impossible,” he says. “In 2020, more than 1.4 million mothers left the workforce, which is a staggering number. Backup care during the pandemic was a critical lifeline for organizations that wanted to keep their employees. Without it, 50% of working parents would have reduced their working hours, a third would have missed critical deadlines and 20% would have left their jobs altogether. The pandemic highlighted the central role of mothers at work and at home and how important it is to offer them meaningful support.

Carter emphasizes that systemic challenges persist: unequal pay, lack of affordable childcare, and limited parental leave for fathers all reinforce parenting imbalances.

“Tackling these interconnected problems requires a three-pronged approach between policy, workplace culture and societal expectations,” says Carter.

On the bright side, Carter notes, “People now understand that supporting mothers is not just a convenience; it’s about equality and sustainability.”

Brody echoes this sentiment and emphasizes business transformation. He points out that providing better support to parents is not only a compassionate choice, but also a profitable one, as ROI of medical benefits white paper, joint report Fifth trimester and Vivvi Early Learning.

Brody also emphasizes the power of language in cultural changes. “Language can be incredibly powerful for people’s identity,” he says. “We often have to understand that what we experience is not a personal challenge but part of a systemic problem. Together, we can do our part to help fix it.”

Almost eight years after its release Fifth trimestershe still hears from new moms grateful for the name, which explains the murky time transitioning back to paid work after the holidays.

“The name thing, there’s so much power in such a shared identity and experience,” she says. “We can only solve challenges we can see and name.”

2. Let’s better understand that all mothers work, whether they are paid or not.

Nine years ago, after completing an MBA from Stanford and working in brand marketing, Neha Ruch had her first child. “It was the height of the Lean In movement, and when I decided to go part-time and eventually take a break to stay at home, I was devastated by the shame and stigma I faced,” she says. “Ambitious women on career breaks were still burdened by outdated stereotypes and often felt marginalized.”

This experience motivated Ruch to found Mother Untitled, a community committed to changing perceptions of stay-at-home motherhood. “My mission was – and still is – to empower women to take a career break with confidence, shame and a sense of possibility,” she explains.

Today, Ruch is releasing a new book, The Power Pause, which she describes as “a guide for a new generation of ambitious women to prepare for a break with confidence, financial value, enjoy this stage of life with rhythms and support that work for you, and unlock full opportunity for personal growth and creative exploration to return with confidence. “

Ruch believes that the conversation about motherhood, especially stay-at-home motherhood, is evolving in a meaningful way, thanks in part to the work emerging from her community.

She criticizes outdated notions of stay-at-home moms, noting how “the Junes Cleaver image from the 1950s has morphed into one-dimensional characters like the Craft Project Mom, the Peppy Athleisure Mom, or the Exhausted-in-Sweatpants Mom. None of these stereotypes reflect the vast majority of stay-at-home moms— of course not the nearly three million women of prime working age who took a break from their working careers for childcare reasons during the pandemic.”

Therefore Power break features diverse stories of stay-at-home moms who defy these stereotypes. Ruch believes it’s time for society to recognize career breaks as one effective part of the long game, so that more women have the opportunity to pause or switch without stigma or punishment.

3. The influence of social media on motherhood, which was once praised, is now criticized.

What used to be considered authentic is now often perceived as performative. While some mothers feel able to share their struggles honestly online, others face new pressures to “perform” idealized versions of motherhood. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rise of “trad wife culture,” a movement in which women embrace traditional gender roles, focusing on housekeeping and childcare while the husband acts as the primary breadwinner.

In some parts of the internet, the June Cleaver stereotype has made a comeback.

In the early years of social media, motherhood was openly discussed, sparking honest conversations that raised awareness of mental health issues like postpartum depression and other challenges that mothers had previously been hesitant to address. These daily glimpses into people’s lives have also deepened our understanding of how a parent’s work and home life can intersect in ways that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago.

“The general conversation about motherhood and women wanting to include their children more in their work lives has definitely increased,” notes Daniella Rabbani, host of The Mom Curious Podcast. “Influencers and mommy bloggers have done women a huge favor in this regard. Brands are looking for women who have an active audience and who embrace the work of motherhood as part of their business model.

But Rabbani admits this honesty comes at a price.

“On the plus side, moms have cachet. We’re proper money makers and spenders,” she says. “But most accounts are glossy, self-promoting and even dishonest mommy profiles. For the sake of monetization, these portraits of the idealized “mother” leave out key elements of the storytelling. The results may be beneficial for individual creators, but harmful for mothers in general. The best we can do is be honest with each other to support each other.”

4. The conversation around mothers has expanded to include all caregivers.

A subtle but significant change that Brody has observed in working with various employee resource groups (ERGs) over the years is the evolution of their names. Groups that used to be called “Moms at (Company Name)” now adopt more inclusive language, such as “Families at (Company Name)” or “Cheers at (Company Name).”

“There is still a persistent cultural belief that caregiving is primarily the mother’s responsibility,” says Deepti Sharma, an activist and former entrepreneur at Barnard and Columbia. “This narrative not only limits mothers, but also excludes fathers and non-traditional caregivers from fully participating in parenting. To make progress, we need systemic changes like universal child care and paid family leave, but we also need a culture change that values ​​caregiving as a shared responsibility, not a gendered one .

In addition to mothers, the recognition of the nursing work done by fathers and caregivers of different genders has emphasized its importance and the value that society has begun to place on it.

“More and more people are talking about nursing as a necessary and valuable job,” adds Sharma. “It’s no longer something that happens in the background.”

5. There is now a collective understanding that the challenges mothers face are systemic, not individual.

“We’re finally starting to move away from the idea that the challenges of motherhood in America are personal failings to structural and political flaws,” says Dawn Huckelbridge, founding director of Paid Leave for All. “Our structures have not survived. We adopted temporary policies like paid leave and made short-term investments in childcare, but then returned to the status quo. There is still a lot of big business money to be made in that myth about the continuation of motherhood.”

“Our system is broken,” Brody adds. “We have a school day that is an hour shorter than a working day. The AAP’s guidelines are to keep your baby sleeping in your room for six months and to breastfeed for two years, but no paid leave to enable these things.”

Huckelbridge predicts that in 2025 and beyond, these conversations will remain at the forefront. “As the sandwich generation grows, more spouses, partners and men are taking on caregiving responsibilities, which naturally increases its visibility and value,” she explains. “Women’s care and labor issues are finally being recognized not just as social or ‘soft’ problems, but as economic imperatives.”

“American society is going through growing pains, one step forward, one step back. Right now we seem to be in a new frenzy where traditional and toxic masculinity is trying to make a comeback,” continues Huckelbridge. “The status quo may seem easier – we could continue to have mothers carry the lion’s share of the work and burden, or we could all work hard to create new gender norms and invest in new programs such as federal paid leave.

“It’s a house of cards,” he notes. “Women can’t do everything, and if we don’t invest in real infrastructure, the whole house will eventually come crashing down.”