Being a mom does not have to be a career interruption. Not even a pause.
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Yet while the world continues stumbling over its own feet when it comes to working mothers and their careers, two recently released reports suggest many companies may be overlooking some of the very qualities they spend millions trying to cultivate in their leaders.
The 2026 Maternal Strengths Report by Mothered Media found women reported gains across every leadership-related competency measured after becoming mothers.
The 2026 Working Women in South Africa report by RecruitMyMom found many of those same women are battling burnout, carrying significant financial responsibility and struggling to see opportunities for advancement.
Pretoria entrepreneur Marilize Jacobs, who has spent nearly two decades running a PR company and an interiors business while raising a family, said the findings confirmed something she had already learned through experience.
Too often, motherhood is viewed as something that diminishes a woman’s professional value when the reality may be quite the opposite.
“Strategic energy allocation. Without question,” she said.
Strategic energy allocation
It’s all about the clock, according to Jacobs.
“Time management gets all the airtime because it is easy to measure and easy to admire.
“But time management is a tool. Strategic energy allocation is the actual skill.
“It is knowing that not every crisis deserves your A game, that some fires are meant to burn out on their own, and that the real discipline is protecting your capacity for the things that genuinely require you.”
Jacobs said there is no realistic version of her life where everything receives equal attention at the same time.
“I have two businesses. I have twins. There is no version of my life where everything gets equal energy all the time.
“What motherhood forced me to develop is a ruthless internal triage system. I do not always get it right.
“But I make the call faster than I did before and I recover faster when I get it wrong.”
She believes many companies continue to underestimate the professional skills developed through motherhood, because they are often measuring the wrong things.
“The evidence is inconvenient,” she said.
“Organisations have spent decades building performance systems around visibility, availability and linear career progression. Motherhood disrupts all three.
“So rather than interrogate the system, it is easier to pathologise the disruption. The mother becomes the variable. The system stays intact.”
Pathologise the disruption, instead
It looks as if the Mothered Media report supports her argument.
Women surveyed reported gains across all 12 leadership competencies measured, including time management, prioritisation, negotiation and communication under pressure.
Jacobs believes employers often fail to recognise the cumulative value of those abilities.
“Compounded capability. That is what they are missing,” she said.
“The Mothered Media data shows gains across twelve separate leadership competencies. Not one or two. Twelve.
“Simultaneously. Developed under conditions of genuine constraint, genuine stakes and zero safety net.”
Jacobs and her twins. Picture SuppliedJacobs said that many organisations would readily invest in developing those skills through formal training programmes while overlooking women who have already acquired them through lived experience.
“When a company fails to recognise that, it is not just missing a diversity opportunity. It is making a talent valuation error.
“It is looking at a portfolio that has appreciated significantly and filing it under miscellaneous.”
The RecruitMyMom report painted a less encouraging picture of the workplace environment many women find themselves navigating, with burnout remaining widespread and many respondents reporting limited opportunities for advancement.
Jacobs said one phrase summed up the problem.
“Invisibility dressed up as flexibility and structural invisibility. When you are not in the room, you are not considered.
“And when you are not considered, you do not progress. When you do not progress, the financial pressure compounds. It is not a cycle that flexibility alone breaks.”
Negotiation all round
In a sense, Jacobs said, negotiation is the foundation of everything that a working mom has to contemplate.
“What I do every single day in my businesses is negotiation. Managing client expectations, vendor timelines, creative direction, team dynamics.
“What I do at home is the same skill set applied under different conditions.
“Motherhood did not teach me something separate. It sharpened the same muscle through repetition at volume.”
What she hopes business leaders take away from both reports, too often, motherhood is viewed as something that diminishes a woman’s professional value when the reality may be quite the opposite.
“You are making a business error, not just a values one, when it comes to working moms. The question is not whether the capability is real.
“The data answers that. The question is whether business leaders are willing to restructure corporate evaluation systems to see it.”