femtech:brief #11: Working moms
👋🏽👋🏽 Hello and welcome to the 11th edition of femtech:brief! We hope you had a wonderful break and that this year brings you health and happiness :)
We usually talk about femtech startups that focus on health issues so this time let’s see a common non-health problem that women usually face and how startups see that as an opportunity.
Career or family? How about both! Let’s see how some femtech startups are enabling a smooth transition back to the workspace for women.
”Of the 30% of women who leave the workforce after having a child, 70% would have stayed if they had access to flexibility."
- A statement from the Werk
Research has shown that even though women spend more time in paid labor than in the 1970s, the time spent on childcare remains the same as stay-at-home moms in the 1970s.
Startups to look out for
Werk
According to a statement from Werk, "Of the 30% of women who leave the workforce after having a child, 70% would have stayed if they had access to flexibility."
"When we started Werk, our goal was not just to make the workplace more flexible for women, but to ultimately create a new kind of workplace that supports and facilitates the ascension of women to leadership," Dean told Business Insider.
WerkLabs was acquired by The Mom Project, a startup with a similar ethos.
The Mom Project
Turning the tables around, working women can specify what they look for in their employers and can get matched with such. The startup’s special interest is in matching women with a career break to be matched with the right employers.
"At The Mom Project, we're committed to helping women remain active in the workforce at every stage in their journey, and we're proud to work with employers who are committed to designing and supporting a better workplace," the company said in a statement.
Maven
Maven started as a benefits platform targeting employers where women could get access to a network of women’s health and family health provider networks.
"Just the other day, Maven helped a woman who was on a work trip to Singapore ship her breast milk home to her baby in the US," Ryder told Business Insider.
She is MOM
She is mom, a Romanian startup offers the best digital education solution, access to mentoring, resources, benefits, and job openings and connecting working moms to prospective employers.
Wonderschool
Find in-home childcare and preschools. Wonderschool opened ways for parents to educate their kids while balancing work and also enabling teachers to open preschools in their own homes.
Peanut
Provides a platform of opens conversations among women including enabling women to help other women get back into the workforce following a career break or maternity leaves. Read how community support can help in our previous issue here.
Cuckooz Nest
Co-working is a fast-growing trend globally triggered by the pandemic and a recent addition is the parent-friendly co-working spaces with in-house nurseries so parents are always close to their little ones. These parent friendly coworking spaces provide amenities Read here about the rise of child-friendly coworking spaces.
Startup of the week
Milk Stork
As the name goes, the start-up enables working moms to ship their breast milk back home during business travels. Milk stork is also available as a benefits platform for employers. IBM, Boston Scientific, SAP, Pinterest, Home Depot, Zillow, and many others offer Milk stork as a corporate benefit, making it easier for moms to return to the workforce. Watch how it works
💡 Interesting fact
According to the Pew Research Center, mothers today spend 16 more hours a week performing paid labor than they did 50 years ago, though the amount of time they spend with their children has not changed in the past 40 years.
👁️ Bonus read
“In an ideal world, you’d both take parental leave. In reality, women still take more time away from work. “That sets up the dynamic where the mom’s the primary parent and the dad’s the helper, which is not what is best for moms, dads, or kids,” says Scott Behson, Ph.D., author of The Working Dad’s Survival Guide. “The dynamic should be we are co-parents.”
Are you a working mom? Even otherwise, this handbook can come in handy!
Thank you for reading and a happy and healthy 2022!