I wanted to share our Work Muse manifesto from International Women’s Day with our awesome group:

On International Women’s Day, at Work Muse, we choose to honor this day with a commitment to challenging gender stereotypes and bias starting in the workplace.⁣ ⁣ The first: that women are seen as less committed when they become mothers while men are seen as breadwinners needing to provide. ⁣ ⁣ The Motherhood Penalty is real and impedes women’s abilities to provide for their families and themselves through retirement and beyond. ⁣ ⁣ Truthfully, we should call it the Caregiver Penalty. As if one giant financial setback isn’t enough, women hit a second whammy well into their careers when they need to step out or back to care for their aging parents. In the U.S., up to 90% of caregivers to aging parents are women. And without readily available and affordable healthcare, they’re often forced to make this sacrifice.⁣ ⁣ We women face a structural and systemic problem dependent on a workplace designed during the Industrial Revolution when women simply weren’t part of it. ⁣ ⁣ In addition, the U.S. (once a leader in working women through the 90s) has fallen off the map due to a critical failure to make changes to workplaces as women for the first time ever — in 2020 — outnumber men in the workplace. ⁣ ⁣ The time for these changes is now beginning with paid parental leave, equal pay, affordable childcare and healthcare, and flexible work practice rights.⁣ ⁣ Above and beyond, all workplaces should have company-wide gender bias training for salary, hiring, and promotion practices that don’t penalize women for being caregivers. ⁣