How to retain top female talent, and reduce the motherhood penalty

If you are losing high-performing women in the years around early parenthood, you are not alone. And it is not a “pipeline problem” you solve with a mentoring program and a hope.

It is the motherhood penalty in action: the compounding career cost women experience after becoming parents, driven by reduced hours, bias, stalled progression, and a workplace system that often treats parental leave as an HR process instead of a critical talent moment.

For DEI and People and Culture leaders, the question is simple:

How do we keep our best women, support them to grow, and remove the hidden penalties that push them out?

This article breaks down what is driving the motherhood penalty, what actually improves retention, and the outcomes from a Workpants career coaching pilot (December 2025) delivered with an Australian organisation, where participants reported 100% coaching satisfaction and a +42% uplift in confidence.

What the motherhood penalty looks like inside organisations

The motherhood penalty rarely shows up as one dramatic event. It shows up as a series of small, career-limiting moments that stack up:

• A role “simplifies” after leave and loses profile

• Flexibility exists on paper, but using it reduces status or opportunity

• Part-time work gets quietly equated with lower ambition

• Stretch projects and leadership opportunities go elsewhere

• Career conversations become vague, awkward, or avoided

• High performers stop seeing a future and start planning an exit

This is often made worse by a familiar assumption: that mothers become less ambitious, less committed, or less capable. In reality, what often changes is the system around them, not their potential.

Why you need more than a flexible work policy to retain top female talent

Flexibility is necessary, but it is not sufficient.

The real retention risk sits in the transition points:

• preparing for leave

• staying connected during leave

• returning to work

• re-establishing momentum in the first 3–6 months back

• Without structured support, many women experience:

• reduced confidence

• uncertainty about what they want next

• a heavier load at home and at work

• avoidance of difficult conversations with managers

• a quiet drift away from leadership pathways

The biggest barriers Workpants participants report are:

• uncertainty about what I want to do (61%)

• the work/life juggle (54%)

• lack of confidence (54%)

That combination is a retention risk if it is left unsupported.

The business case for retaining top female talent

If you want this to land with executives, tie it to outcomes they already care about:

• retention of high performers in critical roles

• leadership pipeline depth and bench strength

• reduced regrettable turnover

• higher productivity after return-to-work

• reduced ER risk from unmanaged workload and burnout

• improved equity outcomes over time

Put simply: if your best women see parenthood as a career slow-down, you will lose capability, leadership potential, and performance.

Retention strategies to keep working mothers, a practical model

Organisations that retain top female talent treat parental leave as a designed experience, not a handover.

Here is a model that works in practice.

Create career clarity before leave

Help employees define:

• what “success” looks like in the next life stage

• what they want to keep, change, or stop

• what progression could look like, including part-time leadership pathways

Build manager capability for better career conversations

Train leaders to:

• ask, not assume

• co-design flexible work arrangements that protect performance

• discuss ambition, boundaries, workload, and progression without bias

Make return-to-work a reboarding moment

Treat return-to-work as a reset, not business as usual:

• role scope and priorities are clarified early

• workload is rebuilt deliberately

• stakeholder expectations are aligned

• milestones are set for the first 30, 60, 90 days

Provide career counselling and executive coaching at key transition points

This is where confidence, boundaries, and advocacy skills get built.

Workpants participants tell us they value having a safe, supportive and independent space with a confidential coach outside their workplace and personal life. They also highlight the value of practical tools, including wording for tricky conversations and clear action steps.

Strengthen community and connection

Parents need a village, not just a policy. Group touchpoints and peer connection reduce isolation and improve follow-through.

Remember the Dads

If you want to retain top female talent, you cannot treat care as a “mum issue”. When dads feel genuinely supported to take parental leave, use flexibility, and share the load at home, it reduces the default-parent pressure that drives women into reduced hours, stalled progression, and exits.

Make it practical:

• Normalise dads using leave and flexibility, especially leaders. Visibility sets the standard.

• Set clear manager expectations: encourage dads to take leave, plan coverage properly, and avoid career penalty language.

• Offer the same coaching support to dads so shared care is real, not aspirational, and women can keep momentum at work.

Measure outcomes and scale what works

Track confidence, clarity, intent to stay, and return-to-work retention, then scale what works.

Case study: Workpants coaching pilot (Australian organisation, December 2025)

This pilot is a strong example of what happens when you support parents with practical career coaching through the career and parenthood transition.

Program snapshot

• 13 participants received 1:1 coaching while navigating career and parenthood

• The cohort was oversubscribed, with 10 places originally planned and 13 filled

• Participants completed pre and post-coaching surveys, and a webinar session for leaders was also delivered

What participants wanted help with

Top goals included:

1. better work-life balance (61%)

2. making a career plan (54%)

3. raise or promotion (46%)

Results People and Culture leaders care about

• 100% coaching satisfaction

• Confidence uplift: +42%, with cohort confidence moving from 49.2% pre-coaching to 75.4% post-coaching

• Webinar satisfaction: 92.6%

What changed for participants

• Participants reported outcomes like:

• feeling more ready to advocate for themselves

• leaving sessions with practical and applicable solutions

• gaining concrete example scenarios, wording, and resources they could use immediately

This is the retention lever in action. Confidence, clarity, and advocacy skills are what prevent quiet exits.

Why Workpants works for retaining female talent

Workpants career counselling and executive coaching supports organisations to retain top female talent by strengthening the moments that typically break the system:

• confidence and clarity during the career and parenthood transition

• practical tools for difficult conversations, boundaries, and negotiations

• progression momentum, including leadership while part-time

• wellbeing and sustainability, so high performers can keep performing without burning out

It also scales beyond individual coaching including leader education and group sessions to expand impact across the organisation.

How to run a retention pilot in your organisation

If you want a low-risk way to start:

• Select a cohort (for example, 10–15 participants across: about to return, just returned, back for a while)

• Run 1:1 coaching with consistent pre and post measurement (confidence, clarity, intent to stay)

• Add one workshop to lift manager and peer capability (reduce assumptions, improve support)

• Report outcomes (satisfaction, confidence shifts, themes, recommendations)

This gives you a clean internal story: what changed, what it prevented, and what to scale.

FAQs about the motherhood penalty and retaining working mothers

What is the motherhood penalty?

It is the measurable career and earnings impact women often experience after becoming parents, including stalled progression, reduced opportunities, and bias linked to flexibility and caring responsibilities.

Why do high-performing mothers leave?

Common causes include confidence dips, lack of career clarity, flexible work stigma, reduced opportunities, and poor-quality career conversations with leaders. Workpants participants tell us that the top barriers included uncertainty, the work/life juggle, and lack of confidence.

What is the most effective retention strategy?

Design the parental leave and return-to-work transition as a talent experience, build manager capability, and provide targeted and confidential coaching support at the points where confidence and momentum are most at risk.

How does Workpants help retain female talent?

Workpants provides confidential career counselling and executive coaching across the parental leave journey, helping employees build confidence and agency to navigate their careers through parenthood. We also create practical tools and content for parents, their people leaders and organisations.

Next step: protect your female talent pipeline

If you want to retain top female talent, you need more than a flexible work policy. You need a system that protects career momentum through the parental leave transition and builds confidence and capability for both employees and leaders.

A Workpants pilot can prove impact quickly. Our most recent pilot delivered with an Australian organisation showed 100% coaching satisfaction and a +42% uplift in confidence.

If you want to explore a pilot for your organisation, Workpants can help you design the cohort, deliver the coaching, measure impact, and build a clear business case to scale.

Reach out to Ali for a chat: ali@workpants.com.au