Storyboard18 | Moms in Adland: The conflict between motherhood and work life is a reality

Being a mom is a natural progression and not an interruption. (Image: Harry Cao via Unsplash)

Many of my team apparently refer to me as “Maa”. The jury is out on whether that’s entirely complimentary, because mothers are not always fun!

But the love and care for our team members is a part of what we do. It’s an outcome of the long hours and time spent at work, even virtually, and the bonds we create over conflicts and celebrations.

When I look at my sixteen-year-old daughter, I do ask myself whether I have spent as much time with her as I could have, whether the many missed Parent-Teacher meetings, scrambled rush to get a birthday gift for a friend’s party, a hastily put together home craft project, would be remembered by her more than the happy moments we have had together. Then I see the look of pride and happiness and I know I am doing all right.

Some years ago, I had written a blog called Gutsy Moms, which was also published in one of our industry publications. I had written about how proud I was to be back at work exactly ninety days after my daughter was born, in 2005. It was much later that I realized that I didn’t need to prove to myself and the world at large that pregnancy was not an interruption. I was battling perceptions as well.

Things have changed for the better on many fronts. The confidence of moms in the industry to juggle work and family, making trade-offs when required. In recent times, we have all embraced work from home, remote working and going forward, hybrid working may be the way forward for many organizations.

But we do have miles to go. There is evidence of women dropping out of the industry which can be relentlessly stressful at times for moms. The conflict between motherhood and work life is a reality.

In Gutsy Moms, I had written that the root of this lies in perceptions we have created. That advertising is about long hours and constant slog overs. That the advertising "culture" is not mom-friendly. We tend to forget that we are not in the business of firefighting and socialising alone, we are about creativity. About brilliance in thinking and execution. And that mothers can be equally great performers. It takes a lot of guts, confidence and passion to pursue a challenging and dynamic profession like advertising, while balancing life at home. Being a mom is a natural progression and not an interruption.

Perhaps, the past two years of work from home have changed the perception of moms in advertising, making us all more open to flexi hours, remote working options and not seeing these as deterrents to a woman’s career progress.

As for me, I still don’t make it to all the birthday parties and school events. But I do have a young lady who is growing up to be independent, confident and ready to take on the world.