A large part of my adult life has been focused on my job. As a Senior Art Director and former graphic designer with 14 years of marketing and advertising experience, creative work is a big part of who I am. I’ve had a bit of a ‘wiggly’ career path, moving between a few different creative roles; trying to be a jack-of-all-trades – as well as a master of all of them at the same time – before settling in my current one and focusing on what I love to do.  

All that considered, just over three and a half years ago I embarked on the biggest challenge of my creative career so far. I became a mum.

With data showing that 8 out of 10 mums working in advertising have actively considered leaving the industry, and many of them have actually done so (especially those in creative roles), it’s clear that motherhood has a major impact in our field. A recent study found that the vast majority of the mothers they surveyed had either left the industry once they became mums or chose not to have children. Those who stayed indicated that motherhood had negatively impacted their career.

It’s worth thinking about how many mums you have in your own creative departments. When you combine the emotional commitment that comes with creative work  – and motherhood – and the deadline-driven focus that’s often needed in advertising, it’s easy to see why this statistic rings true. Combine this with the rising costs⁺ and complexities of childcare and you’re faced with an industry-wide dearth of creative mums.

At the same time, these voices have never been more important. According to Boston Consulting Group, women control around 70 per cent of household purchases and £17tr of consumer spending worldwide. The same study shows that only 19 per cent of those in the UK believe that there are examples of mums in advertising that they can relate to – a problem that desperately needs rectifying for brands to build affinity with a critical target market. The best way to do this is to get a broader, more diverse group of talented women – who happen to be mothers – working on the messages that are being put out there.

So, how do we get mums to stick around? And do the benefits of having women with these unique viewpoints on the team outweigh any potential drawbacks of having to adapt traditional ways of working and career progression?

Never has a role felt more natural or all-encompassing than when I had my son. As with creative work, I still have major imposter syndrome moments, but I saw a quote recently – amongst the plethora of ‘mumspiration’ that peppers my Instragram feed – that really resonated with me: ‘I’ve lost myself in motherhood. I’ve found myself in motherhood”. And I felt that this was not only reflective of how motherhood changed me as a person but changed – and surprisingly to me, benefitted – my approach to my role and my career too. As Anna Abraham, a professor at Leeds Beckett University who studies the neuroscience of creativity says: “Being a mother gives you a different perspective. You’re dealing with a wholly novel situation. You’re discovering a side of yourself that is completely new. All of this is useful to creativity.”

This shift in perspective and this development of self needs to be celebrated and appreciated. So much focus can be placed on the drawbacks of being a working mum – more erratic hours, more home emergencies, less flexible schedules – but there’s so much positive development that happens along the way. Not only have I had to find new, creative ways to work and to solve problems, but my world view has shifted. I’ve learned to let go of smaller issues, as I often have no other choice. I’ve learned to set boundaries and to work with much more focus than ever before in the hours that I have available. And I’ve learned what it means to navigate a world where my son sits at the top of my priority list in all things. Something that’s daunting but also my own kind of ‘North Star’.

In a great article by Erika Hayasaki, in the Atlantic, titled ‘How Motherhood Affects Creativity’ she says: “A long time ago, I would have told you I didn’t really want kids. Now I am so in love with my kids it is terrifying, because with that love comes fear of losing them, or losing myself. Ruining them, or ruining myself. My own creativity these days may come out in a thought tapped and autocorrected on my phone at 2 a.m., or it could come out in a method of bathing three small kids without anyone drowning. Biologically, this capacity and need to problem-solve and express ideas seem to stem from a similar place. I am looking at the universe differently now, and I am seeing new pathways for getting my most meaningful tasks done.”

Some of my own most creative moments have been fitted around a bath time, or off the back of a temper tantrum. And whilst I do find it more difficult to drop everything to seize a new brief, I’ll always do everything I can to support my colleagues and clients – with a renewed awareness of what could be going on behind the scenes in their lives, parents or not.

And in a way, as much as the pandemic set working mums in the UK back, it also created new opportunities for working around a family and schedule outside the usual 9-5, previously only available to freelancers – which is where many creative mums end up. No forms have had to be filled out or team-wide approval sought for me to leave work at 4.30 to do the nursery run, and log in again after bath time. Thanks to the empathy of my managers during the pandemic, I made the seamless change from a 5 day week to a 4 day week. It’s taken me time and practice to find my groove but, at the moment, it works and provides me with the opportunity to do what I love and spend time with my son.

So as you consider hiring, or seeking out a talented female creative – with kids – I just ask that you consider not only what it takes for them to stick it out in the role, but also what value and insight these women can bring to your department. With big tech firms and consultancies, as well as in-house creative roles with brands playing in the spaces only agencies once occupied, there are new, desirable options available to creative mums – often accompanied by more flexible working patterns, good benefits packages and a higher percentage of colleagues in the same position. In order to keep this talent, more agencies will need to adapt.

And as I face the new challenge of being a working-mum-of-two – I’ll be on maternity leave within the next two weeks ­– I’d like to think that I’ll be back again to prove that motherhood and creative careers are not incompatible, and to provide my advice and mentorship to other women who are navigating unchartered waters and trying to find the right balance. Because working mums have a perspective that the advertising industry cannot afford to lose – we’re all so much more than ‘just mums’, whether we’re working or not. And hopefully the insights and strategies that come from dealing with two small, irrational people will help me become an even better creative than before.