Last week, three brilliant women gathered for a Twitter space hosted by Zikoko’s Shift the Story campaign to discuss something most workplaces prefer to keep hush-hush; how pregnancy becomes a career penalty.
The conversation featured Diseye Amy Nassin, People and Culture Lead at Stears; Olajumoke Daramola, a gender and financial inclusion specialist; and Dr Islamiat Gbajumo, a medical doctor. Through this conversation, we learned that the motherhood penalty is still alive, well, and thriving in corporate Nigeria.
The Invisible Bias Everyone Pretends Doesn’t Exist
“Whether explicitly said or implied, it does affect how you show up in promotional cycles,” Jumoke explained, going straight to the point. She introduced the concept of the “motherhood penalty”, that frustrating reality where being pregnant or becoming a mother automatically limits your opportunities at work.
The math is brutal. Promotional cycles happen every 12 months, you’re pregnant for well over half that time, then on maternity leave. When does promotion season arrive? You’re somehow penalised for those months, especially if your role involves subjective performance reviews rather than cold, hard numbers.
Dr Islamiat shared equally shocking experiences from the medical field, including classmates who delivered babies and showed up for exams the very next day. “If you don’t do that, the next time before you write the exam again, you just give yourself an automatic repeat,” she explained. The message is clear-your uterus is the problem, not the institution’s.
The “Helpful” Discrimination That Hurts
Desiree introduced the fascinating concept of the maternal wall during the conversation. This is when colleagues and managers suddenly stop seeing you as a professional and start seeing you as a fragile pregnant woman who needs protecting. Sounds sweet, right? Wrong!
This “benevolent discrimination” shows up in insidious ways, such as being passed over for travel assignments without being asked, getting fewer shifts, and receiving less visible projects. All in the name of “helping.”
“They’re not looking at her as a professional anymore. They’re looking at her as a pregnant woman,” Desiree explained. The result? Decreased productivity metrics (through no fault of your own), and when performance review time comes, you’re judged for output that you weren’t even allowed to produce. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy dressed up as workplace kindness.
When Study Breaks Get Applause, But Maternity Leave Gets Side-Eyes
Perhaps the most revealing part of the conversation was about how career breaks are valued. Take time off for an MBA? Investment! Rest for burnout? Strategic! Have a baby? Personal obligation with zero organisational value.
The corporate world views study leaves as something that will yield returns, new skills, fresh knowledge, renewed energy. But maternity leave? That’s seen as time spent being a mother instead of a professional, as if the two identities can’t coexist. In competitive environments, this gap becomes ammunition for career stagnation.
The Ideal Worker Myth is Built By Men, For Men
The conversation circled back to a fundamental truth. The “ideal worker” archetype, always available, never absent, consistently productive, basically never pregnant, was built around male work patterns. Dr. Islamiat put it plainly, this ideal worker doesn’t deal with pregnancy, postpartum healing, brain fog, or midnight feedings. They don’t take their sick children to doctor’s appointments or navigate the physical and emotional aftermath of literally creating life.
The real question isn’t whether women can be committed professionals while pregnant or parenting. The question is when will workplaces stop penalising women for being capable of both?
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