By Jessica Davies  •  March 31, 2025  •

In this episode of Mom’s at Work — WorkLife’s limited edition podcast on the challenges working moms face today — we discuss the daily dance that so many moms perform: the push and pull of balancing professional goals and financial stability with family responsibilities.

We speak with global operations director Barbara Nicholas about how she had to take sick days or unpaid leave when she had her first child, rather than risk being fired, and how she missed out on many of her daughter’s first moments as a result of being overworked. And how that experience taught her to push for better boundaries and establish the right work-family balance at an employer that doesn’t expect her to prioritize her job at the expense of her children.

We unpack how the “Lean In” era, while well-intended, has left many women feeling like they can’t “have it all” — they’ve ended up being expected to do it all — and why that idea no longer flies.

We reunite with returning guests Kendra Pennington, founder of Beyond the 9th women’s community, and sociologist and author of Jessica Calarco about why the “supermom” label can feel toxic, putting even more pressure on mothers to perform at an unrealistic level in both their careers and at home. 

“The problem is that we’ve told women to lean in at the office without simultaneously telling men to lean in at home. And the consequence of this is that women are often forced to do double duty,” says Calarco.

WorkLife Presents is hosted by Jessica Davies, founding editor of WorkLife, Sara Patterson is producer, and Tim Peterson is the executive editor of audio and video for Digiday Media. 

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you are listening. For more coverage, visit Digiday.com and WorkLife.news.

https://digiday.com/?p=573551