How to include your work as a mother on your CV

Maternity leave and raising children is not a holiday. It is a job that requires time and other resources and also contributes to the economy. That's why we at mowom want to offer you a tool to include this stage in your CV with a job title, job description and place of work. In this post, I tell you my own experience on how I included it. Are you up for it?

There are many reasons why you might have a gap on your CV, but motherhood and child-rearing are not a gap. It's an incredible learning experience, personal development and improvement of many of the soft skills that are in demand in today's market. Caregiving, and parenting in particular, contributes to the economy and is a job. So today I will tell you first-hand how you can include this stage in your CV to make the most of it and also claim the value of care work.

But first of all, there are two important things to bear in mind:

1. mowom is neither an expert platform in human resources nor an expert consulting on job search, at least not yet. What I tell you here comes from my own personal experience and my own research.

2. I know that including this information in a CV is a difficult decision. At best, it may be seen with suspicion and in the worst case it can be an immediate limitation. But I do also think that it can trigger interest, curiosity and, hopefully, a change of mind.

Each woman has her own personal circumstances and her backpack, so think and evaluate your situation and think if you are going to feel comfortable with it or not. You have here some ideas just in case you go for it.

THE POSITION

First of all, how do you want to name your position? It can be something as simple and powerful as MOTHER, although you may find the following possibilities interesting: Household CEO, (Name of profession) on Sabbatical to Raise a Child, Chief Operating Officer at Home, Executive General Manager of the Home, Director of Childhood Development and Family Nutrition or Designer of Human Life.

THE TASKS

This will depend a lot on what sector you are going to apply in and what type of tasks are relevant. Here are some proposals, but surely you can think of more.

Organization, planning and time management. Just as this image of Paula Kuka shows it may seem as you have just gone for a walk with your baby and have enough time to enjoy on your favourite social network. The reality is that you have done thousands of things, you have managed to arrive on time to the doctor's appointment and you are looking for advice about how to start BLW with your baby. In your CV you can write: Increased efficiency in time management through proper planning and organization of tasks.

Resource management. The resources can be personal (indeed, you are dealing with a human being), natural (if, for example, you are trying to carry an "environmental friendly" maternity, using cloth diapers, shopping second hand, etc.) and also economic (looking for different options on the market and valuing prices). In this case you could write for example in your CV: Reduction of the use of plastic and generation of waste by implementing sustainable methods in the field of household management and parenting.

Research on women's health, nutrition, respectful parenting, positive discipline, etc. This depends on each person, but it is very likely that you have read several books and made a huge research. Today we are usually very disconnected from motherhood, so it is necessary to learn a lot and develop a critical thinking. In your CV you could write: Creating a solid foundation for the development of my son through research and continuous training in women's health, nutrition and positive discipline.

Coordination and prioritization of tasks. This is perhaps a more critical point, and where you may want to include something like "multitasking". However, I am not in favour of this concept. Multitasking has been used as a compliment for women, but it has only made us work more. Indeed, it is a great burden. Did you know that when you're simultaneously working on multiple tasks, you're destroying your productivity by 80 percent? You can read about the study of the computer scientist and psychologist Gerald Weinberg here. Therefore it is important to prioritize and focus. In your CV you can write: Coordination and prioritization of tasks through analysis of dependencies and complexity assessment.

Personal support, personal coach, mentoring, interaction with others... This will depend a bit on the age of your children, but it is something essential in parenting. Especially if you have read about positive discipline, you will see that you can draw similarities. However, since I am not an expert on this topic, I leave it to you only as an idea. In case you work in this field, you will surely find an appropriate way to include it in your CV, and it would be great if you shared it here so that it can help other women.

THE ORGANIZATION

Looking for a way to include this stage in the CV, The Pregnancy Pause triggered the idea to create mowom. Although the context is somewhat different, it shares the essence of giving value to motherhood, and the idea of using this space, mowom, as if it were the workplace. Of course, mowom is not a company, it does not hire, and it does not generate economic resources. But it is a space for vindication, so you can help us spread the idea.

If you also have a LinkedIn profile, you can use this mowom profile to include it as if it were the place where you have worked.

DO YOU NEED MORE IDEAS?

This is just the beginning. At mowom our intention is to keep looking for options, both from other women and from human resources professionals, and to share them with you. At the moment I can only tell you about my own experience, but we hope this post has given you ideas and above all encouragement to include this stage in your CV.

If you are up for it, we would love to know how you have done it and what the reactions have been. And above all, we'd love to see you on our Linkedin profile.