Making working mums part of the big picture
An estimated 390,000 pregnant women and new mothers experience negative and potentially discriminatory treatment at work each year
A recent TUC report found that 50% of working mothers had a request for flexible working turned down or only partly accepted.
Sarah Olney MP
#Motherworks is a photography exhibition illustrating the brilliant and bizarre duality of the life of working mums. A celebration of the women who hold up the economy with one hand and a baby with the other.
Images and stories of the lives of 60 working mums from the C-Suite to the shop floor, from MPs and actors to teachers and farmers. This is an opportunity for you to add the stars from your organisation to the #MotherWorks collection. By bringing the exhibition into the workplace, we help organisations make their working mothers feel represented and recognised, essential for retaining talent and encouraging returners. A bright and bold way to celebrate diversity and inclusion.
Buy the #MotherWorks
book here
PRESS
Read Hadley Freeman's Guardian article see MotherWorks in The Telegraph for IWD 2020.
Learn more about MotherWorks in the workplace in marcommnews
“She has very cleverly both composed a shot and made it appear spontaneous. But the real genius is that each photo is part of a story – a single sentence which leaves you wondering about the rest of the paragraph.
Many of them show scenes of domestic disorder which you know the mother concerned is going to have to clear up while remaining constantly vigilant about their children’s needs and behaviour. They also capture the frustrations, tolerance, chaos and above all, love, that is part of family life.” Leslie Manasseh Brixton Bugle
EXHIBITIONS
The photographs and stories have been exhibited in The Houses of Parliament for International Women’s Day 2020 and the exhibition was the focal point for Brixton’s IWD celebrations. It was part of the Royal Photographic Society’s 100 Heroines exhibitions and The London Design Trail 2019. Marsh, Lockton and Clyde & Co-hosted the exhibition in their stunning St Botolph Building in the heart of the City of London in March 2020. Other hosts, sponsors and partners include WaveMaker, Mazars and WeAreTheCity.
#MotherWorks has developed into a unique, creative event, hosted and sponsored by organisations across the UK to drive workplace gender equality initiatives and hero women in the workplace.
Fiona Freund
Photographer and Founder at WeAre
The duality of the life of working mums
“I remember hearing Jo Whiley talking about breastfeeding at work (at Radio 1) - between records and sometimes during interviews - which apparently threw Christopher Eccelstone. I was lucky enough to be able to take my sons to shoots (until they were mobile enough to dismantle my lighting rig.) They were cuddled by celebrities and CEOs and Mike Trow, the picture editor at Vogue who encouraged me to bring them along, was a brilliant surrogate nanny.
Sadly for most women, this is not possible and so begins the weird duality of the life of the mother who works: while smartly dressed ready to head out to an important meeting, kissing little ones goodbye without clothes being smeared and hearts being broken. The mother heading off to her supermarket/cafe shift to shouts of "bring us back a treat mum!" The multitasking mum who works from home, on a conference call while wiping something unspeakable off the floor. Many working mothers feel that they are expected to work like they don’t have children and parent like they don’t have a job.
As a photographer, I wanted to capture these two worlds in one and invite the viewer to spend some time inhaling the chaos and wondering at the extraordinary achievements of every ordinary mum. These pictures and stories illustrate their highs and lows, and show their difficult, complicated and consequently sometimes hilarious lives.
This exhibition was inspired by MP Sarah Olney’s International Women’s Day speech in the House of Commons “Let's celebrate the everyday achievement of women whether it's in the home or in the workplace.”
Fiona Freund Photographer
Vanessa Vallely OBE
CEO of WeAreTheCity
The big plan was to have a kick ass career. Having kids were never part of the story. I wasn’t maternal and an only child I had never been around babies. I was sure that I would fail all things motherhood should I ever choose to give it a go. I got married, and we said we would try for kids to see what happened. Three months later I was pregnant. I spent the next six months in a world of wonder trying to work out how I would ever look after a baby when I hadn’t properly grown up myself. When Mia was born in 2001, I just didn’t have the instant bonding that I had read about in the magazines. It was only when she was taken away from me due to ill health less than a day after she was born, that I was flooded with this overwhelming, uncontrollable sense of love and responsibility. I was her mum and she was my beautiful baby. What followed was a beautiful awakening and a realisation of motherhood and all the joys (and often the challenges) that come with it. Then came baby no, 2, the beautiful Ella. I was a dab hand at this point. At the height of my career in Banking both my kids were under five. Late nights and balancing trips abroad for work alongside being a mum was tough. I beat myself up for many years about wanting a career and being a mum, I still do at times. When they entered their teenage year’s I decided that I wasn’t going to miss that very important time in their lives where they were becoming young women. I hung up my corporate heels. It came with compromises, but It was one of the best decision I ever made. I wouldn’t say it was quite as I had imagined it, eg baking apple pies and doing crafts, it was more about being happy if I got the odd grunt of acknowledgement. Now a few years on, they have morphed into the most amazing young women who I am super proud of. I wouldn’t change that journey for the world.
Sarah Olney
M.P. for Richmond Park and inspiration for #MotherWorks
One of the advantages of being a London MP is that I get to go home to my family every evening and spend time with them every morning. As the mother of young children, this is a particular blessing to me, but it does mean that I live a life of contrasts. Yesterday, for example, I spent the first part of the morning trying to get my son to clean his teeth and my daughter to brush her hair. I then travelled into Westminster and challenged the Prime Minister in the Chamber about her spending priorities for education. Of the two things, the latter was more remarked upon—it was heard by Members here, recorded in Hansard and shared on Twitter—but getting my son to clean his teeth was the greater achievement in many ways. It took more ingenuity, effort and emotional commitment, but nobody noticed, cared or applauded me for it.
It often sounds ironic or self-deprecating to refer to the tasks of motherhood as being more taxing than tasks carried out in the professional sphere, but in this case, I am not being ironic; it is precisely true. We are so used to underplaying the work we do as mothers and in the home that we do not think anyone will take us seriously if we talk seriously about it. So today, in the spirit of the motion to recognise the achievements of women, I want to celebrate the everyday, unacknowledged, unrewarded and unnoticed achievements of women.
Miranda Sawyer
Journalist and Author
Before having children, I used to work myself up to writing. I’d spend hours on displacement activities: cleaning, organising, staring out of the window. Now, if I have a deadline, I just write. I only have a few solo hours in the day to work, so I just get on with it. I’ve found I can write anywhere. I’ve banged out pieces on the tube, in Brockwell Park, and once in the car park at Legoland.
I don’t think of myself as mum first, writer second, or the other way around. It’s all mixed up, tangled around together, as life is. I don’t lie about combining parenting and work. I tell my employers that I can’t do an interview on a particular weekend, because it’s my kid’s birthday. I don’t see that as any less legitimate than saying I can’t do an interview because I’m busy with work.
There is a rigidity to children’s lives that I find hard. It’s not their fault, but I find the regular timetable of school and after school activities difficult. Up at the same time, dressed, breakfast, out at the same time, off to the same place - day after day after day. Routine makes time rush past and that’s the most difficult part of parenting for me. I want to slow time down.I didn't start my business until I was already a mother, so the work was the adjustment, not the mothering. This child had two self employed parents, and with a little juggling, it was possible for us both to work as we needed. Perhaps it meant we didn't work as hard as we should...but work-life balance and all that, it was a great time.
Lulu Lincoln
Teacher
“Mum, I know you’re working but...”
What do I love most about my life? I love that in one day I can be a teacher, chef, writer, assessor, friend, guidance counsellor, wife and a mum all at the same time.
I have tried (unsuccessfully) to compartmentalise every aspect of my life: my marriage, my home, motherhood, my faith, my career, friendships... The list is endless.
The day I realised my best laid plans had failed was when I decided to plan my lessons from home, for the week ahead. What actually happened was for four out of the five hours that I spent on the computer I was having an ongoing conversation that started with: “Mum, I know you are working but...”
The first five times I was interrupted, I could feel myself in what I would call:
“Work mode” but to my wonderful family, I was really just a lady in her pyjamas using the computer on a Saturday. Mum? Working? On a Saturday? Never.
So I turned around and squealed in a frequency only other mums would understand: “I AM TRYING TO WORK!!! WILL YOU LEAVE ME ALONE. I JUST WANT ONE HOUR ON THE COMPUTER. JUST ONE HOUR!!” (Oscar-winning tears about how difficult my life is.)
It didn’t work.
Then I remembered, I’m not just a teacher, I’m a mum, a wife, I’m my daughter’s biggest fan, I’m my husband’s greatest cheerleader, I am a role model to my class.
So I switched off my feigned “work mode” and utilised my Mummy-super power... Multitasking and lots of prayers.
Maggie O'neill
Actor
After ten years of trying, multiple miscarriages and two ectopic pregnancies, I finally had Tom at the grand old age of forty-nine, I am now fifty-five, a granny mother! And it is no exaggeration when I say Tom is a miracle child to us.
I guess on top of every other worry when you have a child and I find the constant worry is what exhausts me most! I was worried that because I was a much older first time mum I wouldn’t have enough energy but fortunately that hasn’t been a problem, in fact I find the opposite to be true I think because I had Tom so late his presence has re-energised me. In terms of my acting I think I am a better actor since having a child.
Children are the best actors as they tend to exist in the moment and that is what good acting is so I have learnt a lot about acting from Tom and he is a much better actor than I’ll ever be, that’s for sure!
Another benefit to my acting Tom has brought is that because I no longer have the luxury of time, my mind when I am on set learning lines etc is much more focused, I used to spend most of my time prevaricating, which is not healthy and can cause self-doubt and fear.
Now I don’t have the time so I just have to go for it which means I get lines learnt much quicker and don’t let self-doubt or fear hold me back, which is a massive relief. All in all a win, win really.
Thanks Tom!
Radeyah Saud
Design Student
Honestly before I was a mum, I probably would of made the worst student ever! Having my little one made me realise what I wanted to do and pushed me to pursue my degree in product design, now that I’m at the end of that journey I have absolutely no regrets.
I’ve learnt to juggle many roles and responsibilities at once which I find invaluable. I guess you can say I’ve nurtured my child in conjunction with my career path and I’m glad it did it that way.
With all that I have achieved and continue to achieve it’s my son that inspires me & keeps me going. He’s like my little best friend and I adore every single part of him.
It’s great to be able to use design as medium to help him develop and grow.
I love being a mother and I love being able to pursue my chosen career at the same time.
Emily fairhead-keen
Group Strategy Director Wavemaker (WPP)
I was sat in a breakfast meeting at one of London’s finest for Mexican eggs and a dollop of advertising panache with my baby on my lap at a keeping in touch meeting, whilst on maternity leave. An elderly Bill Nighy 1970s Madmen type on leaving said ‘she’ll be the most creative thing you ever do’. Yes. Exactly that. I thought. And so did my lovely male breakfast companion. What a collision of worlds and a lovely result.
How nice to be on the receiving end of a compliment about one’s children as something greater than a monopoly of a working woman or man’s time. How nice that some see the rearing of children as pretty special and lovely and something to celebrate.
The thing is, on bearing these tiny beings, they become the most important thing in the world and then you have to spend the next, your entire life, grappling with a dual existence. Where you care enough about work to return. But the nausea inducing double life is enough to feel giddy with the schizophrenic weirdness of it all. Perhaps not quite as polarising as a hooker in the bedroom and a chef in the kitchen but certainly a slug on zero sleep and a Duracell bunny on a Broadway stage are common feelings. One day I think I’ll get so dizzy I’ll fall, other’s I’m beating that cymbal like my four pack of AAs will never run out.
Leanne Millar
Cleaner
I’m qualified for different jobs... Athletics and football coach and nursery assistant but what I find myself doing now I couldn’t have pictured it a few years ago.... I am now a cleaner. I stumbled upon it whilst scrolling through facebook I saw a few people asking for help with house chores and I thought to myself why not give it a try? I could use the extra cash and it would be nice knowing I’m helping local mums and families in need.
This job allows me to be a full time mum and pick and choose when I want to work. I’ve been lucky enough to have my mum around to help when I get a call or message about a job she comes over and has my children at the drop of a hat. Without her this wouldn’t be possible. I struggle keeping my house tidy but find it quite therapeutic doing it in someone else’s home.
I’ve made life long friends doing this, my children have also made friends, it’s great!!
Catrin Jones Williams
Headmistress
And I thought it was just another day…
After the carnage of damp towels on the bathroom floor, breakfast cereals, toasted bread-crumbs everywhere, hair brushing and combing, smelly kit- bags, disgruntled dogs and after-school arrangements shouted in haste, I made my way to the car, exhausted already, and travelled the 2 ½ miles to school. Why does every school day begin with chaos…
I make a mental note to get up earlier, knowing in that second that I’ll fail miserably by tomorrow morning!
Putting on my smiley, professional face, I meet and greet students and parents, calm disgruntled colleagues, tackle the odd problematic parent (same one every week) and start my working day.
The school bell rings, and cursing under my breath, I leave the classroom promising to return as soon as possible and walk towards the school gate. There stands, or rather, wobbles my mother on unsteady feet, propped up by a self-righteous parent! The parent informs me with relish, that she found my mother and her car in the hedge and that she suspects my mother had been drinking! Oh the embarrassment!
Having thanked and apologised profusely, I then had to arrange for someone to quickly collect the car (courtesy of one of my farmer fathers!) and deposit my mother at home where she could sleep off the excesses of a liquid lunch!
Walking back into class, I took a deep breath and smiled as though nothing had happened!
Dr Rhian Prichard
6th Form College Physics Tutor
During their primary school years, the bedtime words I would dread are “forgot to say it’s World Book Day tomorrow and we need an outfit”. As my daughters will testify, I’m a bit slapdash when it comes to helping out with art projects, but my eldest had made her own stove-hat one year and I’d made sure it was stored away for future use. So Ava was easily sorted as the Artful Dodger (third year running) but that night I couldn’t find anything that our middle daughter, Anna, was happy with. Next morning, I decided she would have to be Winnie the Witch; we had a black tutu and a witch’s hat, no broom but a stuffed toy black cat would do. Bingo but no, she was having none of it. Shouting, tears and eventually with the addition of a pair of stripy tights and a liberal dousing of red, silver and gold glitter glue to her face and tutu, she was happy. I dropped them off at school and then cycled on to work for my 9 o’clock lesson. It was going to be a difficult one teaching the most challenging aspect of the A level course, Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction whilst undergoing the annual lesson observation by the school principal. But I was on comfortable ground and felt confident. As I put on my work face and began, I decided to ignore the tittering and comment from the principal that he hoped it would be a sparkling lesson. Lesson over went to the loo and yes, there was a rather lovely shimmer of glitter to my face, top and hair but annoyingly there was also a couple of blobs of red glitter glue that appeared to be dribbling out of my left nostril.
A very special thank you to Berengere Ducoms for her incredible digital imaging skills.