Whether you are a man or a woman… we are all part of a new movement because without women the US economy is cheated. There is a growing movement for working mothers that is bigger and better than before because we got it all wrong, and it now includes men. This is a book review for our times: Pay Up, by Reshma Saujani.

I was asked to provide a review for Reshma Saujani’s new book, pre-release in March, in line with Women’s History Month. Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (And Why It's Different Than You Think) was destined to arrive at my doorstep “early” by the powers that be. It also could have been sent to me as part of the professional trajectory I built for myself because I am passionate about equity in the workplace for women and working parents, as are the other changemakers who were sent the advanced copies. However it came to me, Reshma Saujani, the women’s empowerment activist, founder of Girls Who Code, and mother of 2 boys is talking directly to and about me and to each and every one of you.

Well, OK I won’t be so dramatic. Revised statement: Saujani is talking to 23.5 million working mothers in the United States, to the rest of the world, and to each one of you: women, mothers, daughters, fathers, husbands, partners, brothers, friends and all human beings of the 21st century.

Saujani is re-starting a Movement because we have gotten it all wrong over the past century. Pay Up gives us the much-needed history of women’s roles in the workforce and how they took shape in the 20 and 21st centuries. Women are invaluable to innovation and input that fuels the US economy. Without women, our entire economy is stifled. Saujani shares lots of data around this. There have been many “movements” towards gender equity with brave and relentless leaders, but the plight of working mothers specifically is abysmal in 2022. This is a well-researched call to action to empower working women, educate corporate leaders, revise our narratives about what it means to be successful, and advocate for policy reform.
I joined one movement 14 years ago when I jumped onto the Great Resignation train. “What’s that?” you ask. “The Great Resignation is now,” you say. “These past 2 years, the Great Resignation stems from the pandemic exacerbating the significant gender inequalities and double standards that are causing widespread burnout in women.” Well, I am talking about the OG Great Resignation. The Movement of leaving an untenable situation and the unreasonable expectations from corporate America and of society at large. In my privileged world, I “Leaned” OUT of the corporate rat race by quitting my job to recover from severe burnout from “having it all,” and following my personal values around raising my toddlers and protecting my wellbeing. Having a career, raising a family, striving for the next promotion, ensuring I remained on track for challenging and rewarding work all without support… “Having It All” was just killing me. And I was tough. I was raised as a latch-key kid of a working single mother. I was ready for the Motherload. But as mentioned, it was destroying my wellbeing and made very little financial sense with paid childcare and other necessary supports. This OG Great Resignation was the reason Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Nell Scovell and Sheryl Sandberg was written in the first place. Highly educated women were leaving corporate and other professional and service work in droves in the early naughts due to this lack of support from the system, corporate leadership, and the government. Not due to their “will” or lack of a will to lead!
Working-class and single women have always been strained with having to make enormous sacrifices to raise a family and to bring home a paycheck. Situations exacerbated by a lack of extended family and modern isolation, lack of government programs, childcare, and job protection laws, leave working mothers without the proverbial village of support needed. The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on all women, and it was catastrophic for working mothers.
Saujani’s new book Pay Up highlights how Covid exacerbated the unsustainable plight of working women in America. She sheds light on the hidden inequalities at work and at home and the need for most ambitious women to hide half of their lives from their work leadership in order to get ahead. Pay Up is JUST the book we all need to read right now, to know we are not alone and to create change. Saujani exposes things many people have been getting wrong, or ignoring, and she creates a roadmap for change!
Saujani admits she was a huge advocate for Lean In and even looked down on stay-at-home moms. Her “Aha” moment came after she herself had a child, and then a second child, and had to juggle work and child-rearing during the pandemic. After she started to walk the walk, she realized that the system needs to change, not the working mothers. Um, yes! Yes, Reshma. That makes a LOT of sense and I am thrilled you point this out. Women are way too damn hard on other women. Other moms are not the problem. Women need to protect and nurture their wellbeing but it is not up to the individual women to change the system. It is up to corporate leadership, government, the system to change the system.
As a political activist fighting for The Marshall Plan for Moms, Saujani describes this as “an investment in women’s recovery and empowerment.” In the book she reveals the “big lie” of corporate feminism and a lack of real progress we seem to have been fighting for for years. Saujani presents an ambitious plan to address the burnout and inequity that impact corporate innovation and success, as well as harm America’s working women. While the government is fighting things out in Washington, Saujani offers a roadmap for change, or ”a bottom-line primer” on what’s needed and what employers and individual women can do to “contribute to the revolution.” This very specific tool for change can be super useful as we all strive to set up a more sustainable working world and to protect an invaluable source of our collective economic and personal wellbeing. I highly recommend you read Pay Up, and send a copy to any working mother you know is struggling and above all, share with anyone with the power to create lasting institutional change.
To each of you who read this to the end, thank you for being a key part of this revolution just be taking part in my mission and the mission of Monumental Me to create and better manage positive change.
Yours,
Liana Slater
The Mindshare Podcast
Monumental Me ( )