- I vividly remember being in a conference room
speaking to my manager and telling her I was pregnant.
And I said, "Don't worry,
I'll be back to work in two weeks".
And she laughed at me.
Then I had my son and I understood, I got it.
It changed me in such a profound way.
And I didn't want to go back
to the way that things were before.
I felt like that was my life calling
to help solve this problem for women across the world.
I'm Allison Robinson,
I'm founder and CEO of The Mom Project.
I'm 34 years old
and I'm disrupting the workplace for moms
so they don't have to choose between
their families and their career.
Being a disruptor is the greatest superpower.
There's nothing that moms can't do.
Moms have so much to offer
but the current workplace has not been designed
for her in mind.
I think that we have not prioritized policies to
really be able to impact the lives of American families
and mothers unfortunately still face a lot of bias.
And the motherhood penalty is real.
We know that moms are less likely to get interviewed,
less likely to get hired and less likely to get promoted.
So The Mom Project is the platform, it's the marketplace
that connects 400,000 incredibly qualified moms
with the companies that want and need her critical skills.
And this unlocks a lot of value in the marketplace.
- 43% of women leave the workforce after having kids.
What is The Mom Project trying to do to reverse that trend?
- So the first way is connecting them with great jobs
at companies that really care and are focused
on supporting moms with great policies, great benefits,
treating them with respect.
They understand what an asset moms are to the workplace.
We believe there's so much power in shared experiences
and motherhood is such a common bond.
And we've been talking to the 400,000 moms in our community
and what we've found is they feel isolated.
They feel scared they feel alone, they feel uncertain,
they feel overwhelmed.
And so we've been able to kind of break down
the digital walls to bring our moms together.
We have seen so many CEOs of the biggest companies
in the country have put forth large initiatives
around gender diversity, ethnic diversity
but have really struggled to be able to show progress.
And The Mom Project is a great way
for them to show progress and diversifying their ranks
at all levels within the organization.
- Is it a common refrain
that many of these women are treated differently
once they become moms?
- The unfortunate reality is yes.
At The Mom Project, we get thousands of letters
from women telling us about the mistreatment
that they've experienced.
This has really shifted from being a social topic,
a corporate responsibility, to a business imperative.
Companies now truly believe why
having diverse perspectives propels their business forward.
- How do you convince employers
that moms aren't asking for special treatment?
- Their skills speak for themselves.
On The Mom Project platform,
the average mom has college education,
has worked between eight and 12 years
and so for us, it's give her the opportunity.
She'll win on her own merit.
- [Katie] In addition to the mom project,
you have a nonprofit that's really focused on
giving people of color and moms of color
an opportunity to improve their skillset
and be more marketable.
- It's called Rise.
It's part of our 501[c]3 where we're focused on
helping upscale moms of color into jobs in technology.
It's a new program for us, Katie.
We launched it over the summer
but the response that we've seen has been incredible.
There's such a need for this,
particularly coming out of the pandemic.
They need new pathways
in the fast growing fields like technology.
- [Katie] I understand the woman who's running Rise
is a success story of yours.
- Yeah, Chandra is amazing.
She's a single mom who has walked in the shoes
of many of the women that we're aiming to serve.
And the work that she's already done is incredible
and I can't wait to see what's next.
- Rise is a scholarship program for women of color
to be re-skilled, which means being retrained
in tech roles that are flexible so that they can take care
of their families and earn a great living
at the same time and not have to choose.
- So we're glad to be able to kind of add this new offering
to help these women who really need it,
both for themselves and for their families.
- Allison, you have 400,000 moms you're serving now.
Ideally, how big would you like to get?
- Well, Katie, I don't think this problem stops in the US.
We have women writing us in Africa, the UK, China.
We aim to eventually serve moms around the world
and reach millions and millions of families.
[uplifting music]