Commentary from Jen Drexler, the co-founder of Just Ask a Woman.

In the 90s, the concept of a Mommy Track emerged suggesting that women who wanted to have children and remain in the workforce would likely have to accept lower pay and lesser positions to balance out the flexibility they needed to keep their family from falling apart.  Since then there have been monumental advancements in corporate culture that allow things like flex time, part time, telecommuting and longer maternity allowances.  What I wonder though is even if the company’s policies have adapted, have the employees (male and female) evolved as much?  So is the Mommy Track over or is it just a little more subversive now?
I asked a colleague in the advertising world, Liz, about this and her immediate reaction was "You spend an entire career winning awards for work on liquor, automotive or fashion, and suddenly employers only think of you for diapers and cleaning products."  So sure she still gets to work and be successful but does she get marginalized by being put on the “mommy” accounts?  If you have  a baby then expect to hear at some point “Want to work on that baby formula/juice box/toy product?”  Surely having a mother working on a distinctly female business is an advantage for the client but a talented executive can just as easily apply her smarts to a car account or a b-to-b business.
My biggest worry for working mothers is the social effect of the Mommy Track.  Are mothers still being kept out of the afterhours social events that ultimately could advance their careers?  Are they being neglected when everyone is going to happy hour because their colleagues assume it will conflict with day care pick up?   Do they hear “I’ll go to that convention (read golf boondoggle) so you don’t have to travel.”?  This all ends up sounding like the antiquated idea of an old boys club but let’s remember that women without children are involved too.
So what is the solution? First, I think that acknowledging that this exists is a good starting point and that working fathers may also be affected. Second, we have to admit to the Whole Truth here that in some cases mothers ARE the right choice when looking at clients in the child/family category. Won’t a diaper be better designed by a product engineer who happens to have changed a few? Um, yeah.  Third, I think working mothers have to work extra hard to distinguish their work, present their most professional selves and volunteer for the “un-mommy” assignments whenever possible.  The social Mommy Track only has power if we feed it with stereotypes of working mothers being too distracted to focus. 

Jen Drexler, a co-founder of Just Ask a Woman, counsels leading brands to help them build their businesses by better understanding women. She is the co-author of What She’s Not Telling You: Why Women Hide The Whole Truth and What Marketers Can Do About it.