How 'mother-leader intuitionship' could change corporate culture

What you probably already know: In the last three decades, the number of mothers in the U.S. workforce has steadily grown. Most mothers with young children did not work for pay in 1975, but by 2020, the employment rate for women with children under 3 years old had reached 65%. The rate is even higher among mothers with older children. Despite this trend, mothers (and women as a whole) remain underrepresented in top management roles — a puzzling fact, considering the leadership skills acquired through motherhood largely overlap with those valued within the paid workforce. A study conducted by Laura Marie Rivera and Melinda Ursino, both doctoral candidates at Seattle University, explores these similarities to highlight the untapped potential mothers can bring to the table through better hiring, promotion, and culture.

Why? Rivera and Ursino surveyed 964 mothers in 27 countries to find out which leadership capabilities were most common in the motherhood experience. They found the top responses — emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, mentoring, fostering a culture of belonging, recognizing mother-leader capabilities, active learning, facing challenges and hardships with resolve and resilience, being comfortable with ambiguity, driving accountability, and making a difference — are rooted in themes that resonate with established leadership competencies. The physicality of motherhood is rarely acknowledged in traditional leadership conversations, Rivera said. “In a striking contrast, leaders in the paid workplace are not expected to physically grow, birth, nurture, or ensure the survival of their teams, yet this is a natural and defining part of a mother's role,” she said during a presentation of the study’s findings Tuesday. “Somehow, though it's not named, not celebrated, not seen as a credential or an accomplishment. It simply exists as an unspoken, unacknowledged expectation.”

What it means: The study highlights a mother’s unique capacity to anticipate needs, manage logistics under pressure, respond with empathy, and foster a culture of belonging and accountability. “These are executive skills; they deserve to be named, valued, and developed with the same intention we give to any other leadership competency,” Rivera said. “Of course, people say they value mothers, but do they really? How often is maternity leave casually referred to as time off? How often is a mother perceived as off her game when in truth she's leveled up from a standard 40-hour work week to the relentless rhythm of 100 hours of unpaid invisible labor every week?”

What happens next: The researchers proposed a new leadership approach dubbed “mother-leader intuitionship” that challenges organizations to expand their concept of leadership development by incorporating the skills mothers learn and hone outside the workforce. Fostering a sense of belonging where mothers are seen and celebrated for their workplace contributions could spark a culture shift toward more effective mentoring and more inclusive hiring and promotion practices. "“No longer is leadership confined to the boardroom or job titles; it's found in the intuitive decisions that are made at midnight, the fierce advocacy at school meetings, the vision, resilience, and emotional intelligence honed through caregiving,” she said. “This shift invites a deeper sense of belonging where mothers are not only welcomed but celebrated for their contributions to the paid workforce and equally for the leadership they demonstrate outside of it.”