It's no secret that many moms have to leave their jobs to take care of their families, but their struggle to return to the workforce has often gone underreported.
Now, LinkedIn is taking a progressive step by introducing new titles like "stay-at-home mom" to its platform in an effort to help parents return to the formal workforce.
Other new titles include: "stay-at-home dad," "homemaker," "caretaker," and even just "mom" and "dad." And it's about damn time. Parenting is inarguably the most difficult job in the world.
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Stay-at-home parents usually have years of "employment gaps" after they resign from their last job to look after the family. Finding a new job after a long period out of the formal workforce can decrease your chances of landing a new job, even though looking after tiny humans comes with far more responsibilities than any corporate job might have.
By recognizing titles like "homemaker," LinkedIn hopes to normalize employment gaps to give parents a better shot at returning to work.
It all started with a Medium article that called out LinkedIn for its "implicit bias" against moms looking to return to their careers.
Previously on LinkedIn, all job titles were required to be linked to a company, but that's a difficult requirement to complete for stay-at-home parents that have no official employers.
Instead of shutting down that criticism, LinkedIn accepted the harsh critique and did something about it.
The platform will now be rolling out new options and sections, like one section that will focus on employment gaps to explain to potential employers why they were out of work for a while. This can be anything from parental leave to a sabbatical.
More options for pronouns are also being added so workers can let employers know their gender identity.
As simple as LinkedIn's move might appear, it's a momentous action in favor of the working mom who now has more opportunities than before to return to the workforce.
