Episode 1: Maternal Bias with Lauren Chan Lee
If after announcing your pregnancy at work, you noticed that people were treating you differently (and no, I don’t mean just giving up their seats for you, I mean treating you as someone who matters less), you are not alone. Maternal bias or motherhood bias, also known as maternal wall, is a real thing.
In this episode, Lauren Chan Lee, a product leader, speaker and mentor, shares her story of announcing her pregnancy to her manager and realizing that this news would somehow forever alter how she is perceived at work.
Lauren is an accomplished writer and speaker. You can read her blog and watch the short, inspirational Friday Flash videos on her website:
https://www.laurenchanlee.com/
I wanted to share my favorite posts from Lauren’s blog:
3 things first graders are beating us at
If you have feedback about the episode, or would like to share your unseen battle related to maternal bias, you can leave a comment below.
In this episode of Unseen Battles with Parul Goel, Laraine McKinnon, a Workplace Strategist, and a D&I Thought Leader, talks about her road to getting promoted to a top level job in her company, and what she had to do to workaround naysayers and biases. If you are a woman in tech hoping to get promoted in your role, this episode is for you.
In this episode of Unseen Battles with Parul Goel, Nyna Caputi, a coach, a trainer and a community builder shares her experience of having to pivot her successful business when the pandemic hit. This pivot forced her to confront her impostor syndrome and become comfortable with taking the center stage and marketing herself and her expertise. If you are someone who hesitates to be in the spotlight, this episode is for you.
In this episode of Unseen Battles with Parul Goel, Heather Rider, an anxiety coach, talks about her battle with high functioning anxiety, a form of anxiety that afflicts high achievers as they struggle to consistently meet their own high standards. She shares practical tips that have helped hundreds of her clients overcome this condition.
In this episode of Unseen Battles with Parul Goel, Erin Norton, a technology leader, talks about her experience of being pushed to the edge by a difficult, bordering abusive leader. She offers practical advice on how to hold on to your mental peace if you find yourself in a similar situation.
In this episode of Unseen Battles with Parul Goel, Shilpa Vir, a Product Manager at Google, shares her experience of being laid off from her role when she was eight months pregnant. Instead of letting this setback define her, Shilpa set out on a determined path to prove to herself that she was deserving of a better role and ended up with multiple job offers.
In this episode of Unseen Battles with Parul Goel, Eve Porcello, an author and the cofounder of Moon Highway, talks about how content creation, something that started as a side track, ended up becoming her main source of income. This passive income helped her when she was going through a crisis in her personal life. Eve talks about her story of how she got started, and shares tips on how we can too.
In this episode of Unseen Battles, Poornima Venkatakrishnan, shares her journey of finding her voice in meetings. She talks about an inspiring event from her career where she self-advocated to get herself invited to a pivotal meeting, and her struggles with self-doubt and fear as she prepared for it.
In this touching episode of Unseen Battles, Ada shares her story of balancing being a caregiver for her dad and building her career in tech. She offers practical advice on topics such as having crucial conversations at work as well as end of life planning.
In this episode, Catherine Madden, the co-founder of global conference and community UXDX, shares an experience where because of self-doubt, she said no to an opportunity. Even today, the lesson she learned from this experience many years ago motivates her to more often say yes and has shaped her career.
In this episode of Unseen Battles with Parul Goel, Luaskya Nonon, an Attorney and a Certified Diversity Professional®, shares her story of standing up to her manager when he gave unfair, biased feedback to her. By asking clarifying questions, Luaskya made him rethink the feedback. Do not miss this inspiring episode!