Today is Mother’s Day. And we’re still punishing them for existing.

There’s a persistent, quiet, insidious idea still alive in far too many workplaces:

The idea that motherhood is a problem for productivity. A risk. An obstacle. A loss of efficiency.

As if growing, birthing and raising a human being made a woman less capable of thinking, leading or delivering results.

As if the intelligence it takes to manage school timetables, forgotten forms, improvised meals and sleepless nights isn’t exactly the same intelligence required to lead teams, manage projects or make strategic decisions.

Mothers work more.

Mothers work better.

Mothers get more done in less time — not by magic, but by necessity.

And there’s data. Plenty of it. And it’s not new.

A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis analysed over 10,000 economists and found that women with children consistently outperformed their childless peers in scientific productivity — especially those with two or more children.

Other studies show that mothers develop stronger time management, focus and organisational skills. They work with greater intensity and less waste. And — ironically — they are penalised for it.

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It’s called the motherhood penalty.

And it’s real.

While men often receive a “fatherhood bonus” — a tendency to be promoted or given raises after becoming fathers — women with children are seen as less committed, less available, less fit for leadership.

Even when they prove the opposite every single day.

A woman leaving work five minutes early to pick up her child is judged.

A man doing the same is applauded for being an “involved father.”

She’s a risk.

He’s a hero.

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In my practice, I see exhausted mothers.

Trying to compensate in all directions —

At work. At home. At school. In their bodies.

I see guilt where there should be pride.

Fear of showing vulnerability.

Silence — because many have learned that in the workplace, being a mother is better kept quiet.

And yet, it’s through voice that change begins.

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This Mother’s Day, I don’t want flowers.

I want fair policies.

Flexible schedules. Supportive teams. Shared leave.

Employers who understand that care is also a skill — one of the most valuable.

I want talent not to be dismissed at the first sign of pregnancy.

I want productivity to be measured not by presence at a desk, but by the real value delivered.

I want mothers to stop being treated as a problem.

And to be seen as what they truly are:

resilient, multifunctional, strategic professionals — and human.

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Not all women are mothers.

But every mother I know has learned to work under interruption, conflict, emotional and physical demand at any hour.

They’ve learned to improvise. To lead under pressure. To find solutions with minimal resources.

They’ve learned to fall — and rise again — with a child in their arms.

And still, at the end of the day, many feel they didn’t do enough.

Because society demands perfection from mothers.

Endless productivity.

Endless availability.

Care without recognition.

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This article is for you —

The mother who works.

Who feeds a baby at 3 a.m. and logs into a meeting at 9 with a practiced smile.

Who endures looks, assumptions, impossible expectations.

Who learns to fit into systems that were never designed for her.

You’re not alone.

You’re not less.

You are more.

Because you keep showing up.

Because you deliver.

Because you endure.

Because you work with soul.

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Let this Mother’s Day be more than cake and flowers.

Let it be a call to action.

A moment of reckoning.

Because mothers don’t hold anything back.

What holds us back — and should have been left behind long ago —

is a culture that still punishes them for existing.

Happy Mother’s Day.

To the ones who create.

To the ones who care.

To the ones who never give up.

And to the ones who know the most important work doesn’t always come with a badge.