Mom, entrepreneur chooses kids over career due to COVID-19

CALGARY (CityNews) – An Ontario mom running her own business with two kids back in school is forced into a heartbreaking decision to step back from her career for the well-being of her family with an uncertain school year approaching.

“I’m the primary caregiver and I earn less. So, when it comes to prioritizing careers in the household, even though my career is very important at the end of the day, we need to pay the bills so his job is going to be prioritized,” said Jennifer Hargreaves, who founded the company Tellent.

Hargreaves said her husband’s job will now be the priority in the household which highlights a reality that has led many families down the same road: the gender pay gap.

“I’m seeing it in my work. I help professional women find flexible work opportunities, so even in my community, I’m seeing women who are taking leave of absence, who are taking a step back in their career who are not even looking for work right now because there is so much uncertainty ahead.”

She believes her kids will be safe when they return to school and will learn book and life skills wherever they are, but the uncertainty means she needs to be flexible.

“I will be the one coming up with solutions and how to make it all work, and with his support, he’s very supportive and we’ve negotiated a lot of time for me to find work and for me to find opportunities to do the work.”

While everyone’s situation is unique, many women are making similar decisions which some believe is setting back decades of progress in the workplace.
Hargreaves identifies three areas she believed would help.

“One is certainly reliable and safe childcare. I would say the second is access to flexible employers and the shift in thinking from hours worked to output and results and then the third thing is rethinking traditional gender roles in the household so women aren’t the primary caregivers all the time and there’s more equal balance around caregiving responsibilities in the household.”

Until that happens though, Hargreaves said women across the country will continue to find themselves facing these kinds of tough decisions.

“My biggest fear is that I’ll have to quit my job and that’s because I worked so hard as an entrepreneur to get where I am because I’m so passionate about what I’m doing. Something that I’ve worked so hard for and fought so hard for, for the past four years, to then have to step back because we can’t figure this out.”