A CEO Mom Shared A Photo Feeding Her Baby While At Work & Was Told She Shouldn’t Have Had A Child If She Wanted To Work
People accused her of not giving enough of her attention to her child.
Instagram Becoming a successful CEO is difficult. Doing it while also taking care of a newborn is imaginably even more so.
Lisa Conn is an NYU and MIT graduate who previously worked at Facebook before launching her own company in 2018, Gatheround. At the end of 2022, she gave birth to her first child and only took a few months off before going back to work. In a LinkedIn post, she shared that she went on maternity leave in December 2022 before the birth of her daughter on the 19th of that month but “returned as CEO” in March 2023.
She defined taking on this position as a “milestone moment”—undoubtedly the second one in just a few months! In her post, she attached an image taken by her husband, Joe Wilson, of her and her child as she worked at her computer from home.
Photo: Instagram
“My husband snapped this picture of me the other day: a breastfeeding mama, nursing her baby, leading a team meeting. I’m sharing this picture because it’s not something you see every day,” she wrote. It definitely isn’t! And she mentioned some statistics to prove it.
“Only 22% of women in senior leadership roles have children. The percentage of early postpartum moms in senior leadership roles? Vanishingly small. But research shows that companies with more women in leadership roles have better business outcomes,” she wrote.
She stated that her company’s success is proof of that. Due to working fully remotely, Conn was able continue working on her career while also being able to spend much-needed time with her new baby.
Yet when the CEO and new mom shared a photo of her breastfeeding, mom-shamers descended upon her.
Some remarked that taking care of a baby while also working is not an achievement because the baby deserves her undivided attention.
“This photo is not an achievement; it’s the face of the cruel reality because as parents we are forced to do things like that, and ambition shouldn’t be a priority during the time that you should enjoy life the most with your child who needs you present and not in front of a computer,” one person wrote.
“That’s not an achievement, neither something beautiful! I see a baby in front of a screen because momma has to keep on working. Why[’d] you ha[ve] this baby in the first place…if you are not able to sacrifice and dedicate at least the first months of your time to that baby,” another added
Many others worried about who cared for her baby while Conn worked. She responded to the controversy with an article she wrote for Fortune, labeling much of the criticism as misogynistic.
“If I were a male CEO, no one would ask who was taking care of the baby while I worked,” she wrote. But besides the hate, there were plenty of people applauding her.
Others remarked that her post showed how the new era of digital workplaces allows working moms to be more hands-on with their children instead of relying as much on childcare. A commenter shared a telling statistic from an October 2022 report from the Australian government that, on average, a woman’s earnings suffer a 55% reduction after having a child, called “The Motherhood Penalty.” Flexible online work schedules may help curb this since one of the three significant factors is the number of hours worked.
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. His writing covers entertainment, news and human interest stories.