Turning workforce participation into career progression for working mothers

The pressing question for organisations is how to turn growing participation into sustained performance, progression, and retention, writes Lauren Anderson.

Recent labour force data shows that four in five Victorian mothers are now in paid work, with almost 40 per cent employed full-time. This figure has nearly doubled over the past two decades, representing the highest recorded participation rate for mothers in the state.

On one level, this is a success story. Women are staying connected to the workforce, preserving skills, income, and career continuity. Yet the pressing question for organisations is how to turn growing participation into sustained performance, progression, and retention.

Despite strong return-to-work rates after parental leave, career gaps have not been erased. Mid-career progression remains uneven, and over time, these differences shape who holds leadership positions. Without intervention, advancement slows, disengagement grows, and attrition rises – often just as leadership potential is emerging.

For employers, the cost is tangible: stalled progression increases turnover risk precisely when employees reach peak productivity. The challenge for HR is not whether to support working parents, but to ensure that appropriate systems are designed for them with the understanding that they are core talent, not exceptions.

Flexibility as a workforce norm

Flexible work is now standard in many organisations. Yet women are still far more likely to adjust hours or adopt flexible arrangements, while men’s working patterns remain stable.

When flexible working is taken up largely by one group, performance and promotion systems can unintentionally amplify disparity. Reduced visibility, fewer networking opportunities, and assumptions about capacity accumulate over time. The result is measurable divergence in career progression – not necessarily overt discrimination, but a real gap in advancement.

For HR leaders, this is a systems issue. Treating flexibility as an individual accommodation rather than a core policy risks creating a secondary career path. When senior leaders – including men – adopt flexible arrangements and continue to advance, it recalibrates what progression looks like.

Embedding flexibility into workforce planning, analytics, and succession frameworks ensures it strengthens retention without slowing advancement.

Parental leave as a retention strategy

Parental leave also deserves a strategic lens. Organisations that actively encourage fathers to take meaningful leave see more balanced caregiving patterns over time. This directly supports women’s ongoing workforce participation and subsequent availability for advancement.

When caregiving falls mostly to mothers, extended part-time work and limited mobility often follow. Over time, this contributes to the mid-career leadership gap that organisations aim to close.

From an HR perspective, promoting shared leave is a preventative strategy. It reduces the risk of losing high-potential employees at critical career stages and enables more predictable workforce planning.

Redesigning performance and progression

Higher participation among mothers exposes legacy assumptions in performance frameworks, which historically were built for uninterrupted, linear careers – careers that are less relevant in today’s dynamic workforce.

Effective organisations focus on outcomes, not hours. Clear definitions of contribution, assessed against deliverables, make varied work patterns irrelevant to advancement decisions. Structured return-to-work programs that reconnect employees to strategic projects reduce the risk of career stagnation. Transparent promotion criteria, applied consistently, minimise reliance on informal advocacy or proximity-based recognition.

These changes don’t lower standards, they clarify them – resulting in less ambiguity, higher engagement, and merit-based progression across the workforce.

A strategic imperative for HR leaders

Women in their 30s and 40s represent a large share of organisational capability and emerging executive talent. In a tight labour market, replacing experienced professionals is costly and increasingly difficult.

Working mothers are demonstrating unprecedented attachment to paid employment. The competitive differentiator for employers will be whether they move from reactive flexibility to deliberate workforce design.

For HR leaders, the mandate is clear: participation gains must be matched by progression gains. Supporting working mothers is not an adjunct to business strategy; it is central to talent optimisation, leadership continuity, and long-term organisational resilience.

Lauren Anderson is a workplace expert at Indeed.