The Silent bullying of mothers at work – Photo credit: essence.com

“This would have been a great project, but you know the hours are long, and you are a mom!”

“We took you off this trip because you know, you have kids!”

Many are the stories and scenarios in which professional mothers are bullied at work constantly. And many are the mostly irrational theories about why women simply don’t make good workers, one of them being that apparently we just happen to be obsessed with babies (which also must be linked with the whole cooing doll thing for girls and roaring cars for boys). And of course it all certainly explains with quasi-mathematical accuracy why women are unable to remain in the workforce, or advance in the corporate ranks.

Yet what is not so much exposed is the insidious, at times vicious of bullying of mothers in the workplace. Of course, there is much less data available to actually quantify the missed opportunities, non-inclusive meetings and countless slights made towards women on account of this so weird and unusual thing called Motherhood.

These are realities that most women at work are very familiar with. Unfortunately, they also happen to be our “dirty” little secrets, those awful experiences we discuss more among ourselves but would think twice about reporting to management or Human Resources.

There is a silent epidemic of bullying mothers at work. And it happens to be more costly than just the wage gap or motherhood penalty. It costs many of us our sanity, sense of self-worth, ambition, and defers our dreams. And because it’s not a loud number or imposing statistical figure, or doesn’t really have a name to call its own, it tends to go undenounced.

So next time you see another woman leave the workforce to stay with her kids, respect her choice. Yet as you say good-bye, you may want to think about whether she took the path of least resistance, or if… she’s really just obsessed with babies…

The Corporate Sis.