Diverse Moms, Common Struggles: The Mental Health Toll of Parenting Stress on Working Mothers

Abstract

As evidenced by several research studies, the participation of women in the labour force market is highly impacted by their motherhood duties, which is called the “motherhood penalty”. Though organisations have made efforts to achieve gender equality, the results are not achieving the pace as forecasted. While focusing on strategies that organisations should follow to maintain gender equality, this chapter identifies various parenting diversities among working mothers and their unique challenges. Also, the chapter discusses the feeling of self-discrepancy, mental health impacts, and intention to leave among working mothers. To mitigate these problems, the chapter advocates various retention strategies and concrete family policies that organisations can plan. These strategies will provide support to working mothers to improve their productivity and foster an inclusive work culture. In this chapter, several theoretical explorations are narrated through case studies, which provide insights and practical applications for organisations that aim to build diverse and inclusive workplaces.