“Mothers are broken,” Saujani said. 

It was the pandemic that triggered the stark realization among a lot of women that they were struggling under the weight of being a working mom, Saujani said. And it isn’t just labor, it’s the motherhood penalty. 

Read more: Childcare crisis: How men and employers can combat ‘time poverty’ for working mothers

We don’t have a gender pay gap, we have a motherly pay gap, Saujani added. In that vein, America is one of only a few countries to actually have a rising maternal mortality rate, said  Christy Turlington Burns as she sat beside Saujani on stage. 

Men get a salary increase every time they have a child, while women lose money, Saujani noted. Every two minutes, a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, Burns said. Those stunning statistics form the basis for intertwining crises: economics and health, and probably more. 

“We’ve been told decade after decade that we’re the problem, that we’re the reason why we’re not free or equal,” Saujani said. “It’s because we don’t have enough confidence, because we didn’t find a mentor, because we didn’t color-code our calendar, right, that the problem is us. Well, that’s a bold-faced lie.”

That fallacy has kept women from reaching equality in the workplace. “Motherhood is the final fight for gender equality,” Saujani said. Later, she called it a market failure that requires intervention, whether that be from the private sector or the government.

Well, we happen to be in an election year, and the notion of motherhood has emerged front and center—sometimes via discussions on abortion and childcare costs. Saujani said she asked former President Donald Trump about the latter and he responded with a “word salad.” Still, the childcare debate went viral afterward, sparking further discussion in the presidential and vice-presidential debate. Not to mention, men might be paying more attention since they worry for their daughters and future struggles to balance. 

And with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, there is an expectation that there will be an increase in maternal mortality, particularly for Black women, Burns said. She has spent time with mothers dealing with anomaly pregnancies who have had to travel to another state for care, and in some cases witnesses antiabortion posters and signs on the way there. It affects providers, too, who can’t treat patients. Burns shared that she hemorrhaged after giving birth to her daughter, who is now 21 years old, and that’s what got her into this line of work and advocacy.

“This is like cutting off the hands of physicians all across this country,” Burns said.