Last year, 455,000 women left the workforce. The steepest drop in 40 years. And the easy explanation — that women just want it less once they become mothers — is wrong.
Ambition doesn't disappear when you become a mother. It shifts, season by season. Most workplaces are not built to notice the shift or adjust with it. McKinsey confirmed it in their 2025 report, when they found that there is a real "ambition gap" between men and women, that disappears completely the moment women get the same career support men are already receiving.
That gap, and my desire to help workplaces and women close it, is a big part of why Corporate MomSense exists in the first place. So when SXSW opened submissions for their 2027 PanelPicker, I knew exactly what I wanted to put forward.
I teamed up with the fabulous Dr. Sarah Bren, a parenting expert and clinical psychologist that you already know from this audio recording and newsletter, and we submitted a session called The Ambition Gap: Why Successful Moms Leave the Workforce.
Here is what we want other ambitious career moms and company leadership to leave this session with:
Why isn't the "ambition gap" really about ambition?
And what is it quietly costing the companies who don't see it coming?What actually keeps high-performing moms from leaving?
The data says personalized support beats blanket policy, every time, and we can show you real case studies that prove why.What does a real retention model look like?
An actual framework, built to catch high performers before they walk — with language that you can bring to your leadership team tomorrow.
SXSW is where founders, tech leaders, and innovators come together to imagine and build the next version of how work works. That’s why this topic is such a natural fit for the workplace track. Our goal is to catalyze a conversation about the future of work for moms and parents, and challenge teams and business leaders to rethink what meaningful progress looks like.
This one means a lot to us, and we can't get to the SXSW stage without you. Please take a minute to vote for our session following the steps below.
How to vote on SXSW PanelPicker:
Create a free PanelPicker account and then login to vote
You can find our session at this link or by searching The Ambition Gap: Why Successful Moms Leave the Workforce, and then you hit the little heart symbol in the top right corner to cast your vote
Voting closes August 23rd at 11:59 PM PT
Please share the voting link with your family, friends, colleagues, own communities
Thank you so much for your support, it truly means everything!
