The System Is Failing Working Moms (And We’re Done Pretending It’s Fine)
Wed Dec 03 2025
Season 4, Episode 9: We grew up believing ambition was linear - get the title, get the promotion, get the praise. But motherhood has a way of cracking that open. Suddenly the things we were taught to chase don’t fit the lives we’re actually living… especially when the system wasn’t built for us in the first place.
This episode gets into what it really looks like to work, mother, provide, and survive inside a structure that calls itself “flexible” — but still punishes moms for needing flexibility.
In this episode, we talk about:• The truth behind the widening pay gap and why remote work isn’t saving moms the way we hoped • Karen’s reality of being laid off, returning as a contractor, and navigating RTO with a toddler at home• Purvi turning down a promotion because “having it all” required travel that her support system couldn’t absorb• The emotional whiplash of working-mom identity: ambition shifting, shrinking, rewriting itself in real time• Why childcare, healthcare, and postpartum support shouldn’t be “benefits” — they should be basic rights• How our mothers taught us ambition… and how we’re trying to model something entirely different for our own kids
Because if motherhood really is the hardest job ever, the least we deserve is a system that doesn’t make it harder.
More
Season 4, Episode 9: We grew up believing ambition was linear - get the title, get the promotion, get the praise. But motherhood has a way of cracking that open. Suddenly the things we were taught to chase don’t fit the lives we’re actually living… especially when the system wasn’t built for us in the first place. This episode gets into what it really looks like to work, mother, provide, and survive inside a structure that calls itself “flexible” — but still punishes moms for needing flexibility. In this episode, we talk about:• The truth behind the widening pay gap and why remote work isn’t saving moms the way we hoped • Karen’s reality of being laid off, returning as a contractor, and navigating RTO with a toddler at home• Purvi turning down a promotion because “having it all” required travel that her support system couldn’t absorb• The emotional whiplash of working-mom identity: ambition shifting, shrinking, rewriting itself in real time• Why childcare, healthcare, and postpartum support shouldn’t be “benefits” — they should be basic rights• How our mothers taught us ambition… and how we’re trying to model something entirely different for our own kids Because if motherhood really is the hardest job ever, the least we deserve is a system that doesn’t make it harder.