The Truth About Being a Working Mother in Australia
Being a working mum in Australia isn’t about “having it all.” It’s about carrying it all. Every. Single. Day.
We’re told the workplace is “family-friendly.” That bosses “understand.” But let’s be honest, understanding lasts right up until school pickup clashes with a meeting, or when your toddler’s fever means you can’t show up in person. Suddenly, flexibility isn’t a strength, it’s a liability.
And while you’re apologising to your boss, your team, your kids; you never apologise to yourself.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Here’s what being a working mother looks like in Australia in 2025:
There are 1.1 million one-parent families, and 83% of them are led by single mothers. Almost 400,000 of these women are holding down jobs while carrying the weight of it all alone.
Single mums aren’t just tired, they’re struggling. 38% report poor mental health, compared to 18% of partnered mums. That’s double. And for many, it doesn’t get better a year on.
Mothers who do work still get punished. Women’s earnings drop by 55% within five years of having a child. Fathers? No real change.
So much for equality.
The Superannuation Sting
And then there’s the insult that cuts the deepest: money. Until July 2025, mums in Australia got no superannuation on government-funded parental leave. None. Meaning that every time you had a baby, you paid for it with your retirement - raise your hand is this impacted you *my hand is in the air, and my soul rages for it!
On average, women retire with 35–42% less super than men. Why? Because we’re punished for motherhood. Because raising the next generation comes at the expense of our own future.
The reform coming next year, finally adding 12% super to paid parental leave is a MASSIVE win. But it’s late. Too late for the generations of mothers who’ve already missed out *hand still in air and soul still raging for me and all of those with me.
Mum Guilt: The Unpaid Overtime
Then there’s the guilt. The invisible weight you carry between boardrooms and bedrooms. Your son is the last kid to be picked up from daycare. You’re snappy because you just got another ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ calander invite outside of your work hours. The guilt that hums beneath every “Yes, I can stay late” and every “Not now, sweetheart.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re in a high-rise office or working shifts; the guilt doesn’t clock off.
Confidence: Death by a Thousand Cuts
And when something does slip through the cracks, a missed deadline, a forgotten.. somthing, it isn’t just a mistake. It’s confirmation of the story the world has already written about mothers: that we can’t keep up. That we’re unreliable.
Over time, that story eats away at your confidence until you’re second-guessing decisions you would have once made without hesitation.
The Unspoken Reality
This is the truth about being a working mum in 2025:
We are always apologising, but rarely to ourselves.
We are always patient, but never with ourselves.
We are carrying two full-time jobs in one body, while the system shrugs and calls it “balance.”
Here’s What Needs to Change
Stop telling women to lean in. Stop applauding “family-friendly policies” that don’t account for superannuation, or job security, or the reality of single mothers. Stop patting us on the back for surviving in a system designed without us in mind.
Being a working mother isn’t weakness; it’s resilience that deserves more than crumbs.
It deserves equity. It deserves respect. It deserves a future where we stop saying sorry and start demanding better.
For you, the mother. For me, the mother. For the daughters yet to be mothers. For all of us. We deserve better.
