Beyond the Boardroom: Why Motherhood Is a Powerful Training Ground for Leaders
- 19 hours ago
- 7 min read
By Linda Lowry- Social in Seattle
Seattle Means Business has always been driven by the people who are responsible for moving our area forward, namely the innovators, builders, organizers, and leaders who notice potential where others see only limitations. This month we are looking at a question which has been obvious all along: what if one of the most effective leadership training environments isn't to be found in boardrooms, accelerators, or executive education programs, but rather in motherhood itself?
To explore that question, we spoke to Dr. Laura Marie Rivera, a researcher, storyteller and founder of Intuitionship based in Seattle. Her work questions some of the traditional ideas about leadership and caregiving, providing a new way of seeing the strengths that mothers acquire through the everyday experience of raising children. The following piece is both a feature article and a conversation, an opportunity to reconsider how we define leadership, who we consider to be a leader, and what it means to create workplaces that appreciate the whole range of human experience.
For many years, researchers, policymakers, and advocates have documented the difficulties that mothers encounter in the workplace. The Motherhood Penalty, wage gaps, discrimination, and the systemic injustices relating to childcare and paid leave have all become well known in public discussion. Although these debates are essential and long-overdue, Dr. Laura Marie Rivera realized that one thing was missing. Even though the world was focused on listing the obstacles, almost no one was asking what skills mothers were acquiring as they dealt with those obstacles. What skills were they gaining? What leadership abilities were they putting into practice each and every day?
Rivera's dissertation was intended to examine that neglected aspect. Her study presents motherhood not merely as a situation involving challenges, but as a setting in which leadership skills are developed. "From conflict resolution and communication to strategic planning and adaptability, many of the skills that organizations regard as important in leaders are carried out every day by mothers," she explains. The concept is simple but deep: motherhood is not a diversion from leadership; it is one of the most demanding of leadership's training environments.
While most academic studies stay hidden in university libraries, Rivera’s work became something very much more than just the result of her dissertation defense. Soon after earning her doctorate, her findings were published in Beyond the Pipeline: Redefining Value, Success, and the Future of Women in STEMM Together, a book that took her research to national audiences. From that point on, the momentum increased. Her work has since been featured in public speaking appearances, media interviews, documentary storytelling, community events, and the Motherhood Advantage
podcast. What started out as a scholarly investigation has developed into a public discussion, one that is still expanding across different sectors, communities, and generations.
The way motherhood is portrayed in the public sphere usually focuses on sacrifice, exhaustion, and the penalties involved. Although Rivera's research admits these facts, it also provides an alternative point of view, one that points out the leadership abilities which mothers acquire as a result of looking after their children. "There is so much available on the very real effects of the Motherhood Penalty," she says, "we wanted to draw attention to the strengths and skills that mothers have to offer in the paid work setting." The skills she has identified include conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, strategic planning, adaptability, crisis management, long-term thinking, team development, and advocacy. These are not merely soft skills; they are leadership skills, and mothers develop them in circumstances that are typically more complicated, unpredictable, and emotionally demanding than those found in most workplaces.
After completing her dissertation, Rivera established Intuitionship, a research and storytelling project aimed at changing the way society understands motherhood and leadership. Through media outlets, public events, the dissemination of research findings, and community involvement, Intuitionship seeks to bring forward the voices of mothers and to question longstanding assumptions about the origins of leadership, and who is acknowledged for it. "Moms are using all the same skills that leaders in the paid workforce do," Rivera says, "although their teams are generally much smaller and have more complicated needs than an average direct report." Her work shows us that leadership is not limited to titles or organizational charts; it is exercised in living rooms, kitchens, doctors' offices, at school meetings, and in countless other unseen instances of care. "Mothers are our first teachers, mentors, advocates and leaders, we have overlooked for generations what has actually been right in front of us the whole time."
What started out as a doctoral research project has developed into a wider initiative aimed at affecting the way people discuss caregiving, work, and leadership. As national discussions on childcare, paid leave, maternal well-being, and workplace equity have continued to grow, Rivera's work offers an important viewpoint: mothers are not only preparing the way for the future, they are actually building the leadership skills necessary to shape it. "When nearly 1,000 mothers tell you the same story," Rivera says, "it's important to take notice. The research showed a great deal of leadership potential which is too frequently overlooked. Mothers’ ought to be seen as part of leadership discussions, and the rest of the world should see them there as well."
Since it is famous for its innovative spirit, Seattle is in a special position to adopt this new way of thinking. The business sector in the area has long placed a high value on creativity, adaptability, and people-oriented leadership, qualities that mothers develop every day. Viewing motherhood as a form of leadership training is not merely a cultural shift; it also represents a business opportunity. It encourages companies to reconsider the standards they use when hiring and promoting people, to regard real-life experience as well as official qualifications, to treat caregiving as a valuable asset for leaders, and to create work environments that match the actual situations of modern families. The future of Seattle relies on leaders who can deal with complexity, build trust, manage crises, and think in terms of generations. Mothers have been developing those abilities all the time.
An interview with Dr. Laura Marie Rivera
SMB: What originally inspired you to study motherhood as a form of leadership training?
Dr. Rivera: I was constantly hearing mothers talk about experiences that were precisely akin to leadership development—such as strategic thinking and conflict resolution and crisis management. Yet those experiences were seldom acknowledged as being of that kind. I wanted to find out why and also wanted to record the things that mothers were learning from caregiving which workplaces were not noticing.
SMB: What surprised you most? Your study included nearly 1,000 mothers.
Dr. Rivera: The consistency showed that, no matter a woman's background, her profession, or the make-up of her family, mothers were found to be developing similar leadership abilities. Although they weren't employing corporate terminology, the skills in question were clear. This made me understand that a great deal of leadership potential is ignored simply because it doesn't take place in a boardroom.
SMB: What are your hopes regarding the impact of your work on workplaces?
Dr. Rivera: I hope that organizations start to see caregiving as an opportunity for gaining skills rather than as a lack of experience. A mother, when she returns to work after taking parental leave, has not been away from leadership; she has been carrying out leadership tasks extensively. We need to change our perspective to realize this.
SMB: What is the aim of Intuitionship?
Dr. Rivera: Intuitionship is all about altering the narrative; by means of storytelling, research, and getting involved with the community we aim to bring forward the voices of Mothers and enable society to come to an understanding of the leadership skills they acquire. It doesn't mean ignoring the challenges, instead it involves broadening the discussion to incorporate strengths.
SMB: What would you tell those mothers who don't consider themselves to be leaders?
Dr. Rivera: I tell them that they already do possess it; leadership is not a position but a practice, and mothers carry out this practice every day. The world has just never given it a name.
SMB: What does the movement have coming up now?
Dr. Rivera: We are increasing our efforts in the area of storytelling, working together with various organizations, and keeping on sharing our research with the public. Our aim is to promote cultural change, enabling people to recognize leadership in places where they had never before looked.
As our investigation of the changing nature of work and leadership proceeds, Dr. Rivera’s research serves as a strong reminder that leadership is present everywhere. It is shown in acts of care, in instances of advocacy, and in the quiet resilience of people who turn up day after day for those on whom they depend. Seattle Means Business is proud to highlight voices that help us better understand what leadership entails and who is entitled to claim it. We are also delighted to announce that Dr. Rivera will be joining us as a regular columnist, offering her views on motherhood, leadership, and the future of work to our readers all throughout the year. For only by widening our idea of leadership can we widen our future.
Author Bio
Dr. Laura Marie Rivera is a researcher, storyteller and the founder of Intuitionship, an initiative aimed at changing the way society understands motherhood and leadership. Based on her research involving nearly 1,000 mothers, she examines the leadership skills that are developed through caring for children and questions the traditional ideas regarding the source of leadership, and who is acknowledged for it. Articles based on her research have appeared in national publications, she has taken part in public speaking events, contributed to documentary storytelling and has been a guest on the Motherhood Advantage podcast. She now writes a regular column for Seattle Means Business Magazine, offering her views on motherhood, leadership and the future of work to readers in the area.
