Serena Williams Joins Startup That’s Helping Working Moms Get Jobs

Tennis and entrepreneurial great Serena Williams has joined forces with The Mom Project. Williams will serve as the company’s new strategic advisor.

The Mom Project is the leading career destination connecting moms with world-class companies. The Mom Project, which launched in 2016, serves a growing community of over 200,000 professionals by connecting them to over $50 million in economic opportunity.

“I’m calling on CEOs, Heads of People and Business Leaders big and small. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a team of 1 or 100,000; if you’re hiring, are you considering hiring moms? Together, we can influence how work gets done and build a better workplace for the future,” said Williams, a wife and mother, in a statement.

The Mom Project has partnerships with some prestigious organizations including Facebook, Nike, Invesco, Etsy, JLL, Gap, Delta, Uber, Twitter, Apple, and Georgia-Pacific.

“It is a dream to welcome Serena to our team; she is truly the embodiment of The Mom Project’s mission and what we aspire to. Serena is a role model to so many moms, reminding us that when we recognize our own strength—we are unstoppable. By joining forces, we will be able to accelerate change for moms in America and champion the support needed in the workplace and through public policy to ensure they can thrive,” said Allison Robinson, CEO, and founder of The Mom Project.

• According to the Center for American Progress, 41 percent of mothers were the sole or primary breadwinners for their families, earning at least half of their total household income. This includes single working mothers and married mothers who out-earn their husbands.

• Despite increased family financial responsibility and significant educational gains, 43 percent of women still choose to leave the workforce after becoming mothers with most of the gap in female workforce participation attributable to motherhood and time away from the paid workforce for caregiving reasons.

• The economic potential in solving this problem is immense; The United States could add up to $4.3 trillion in annual GDP in 2025 if women attain full gender equality, according to a recent McKinsey & Co. report.

The Mom Project, with a community of over 200,000 talented professionals and more than 2,000 companies, is committed to building a better workplace for mothers and the businesses they support by harnessing the often overlooked intellectual workplace power of moms. In 2019, the Chicago-based company launched MP Labs, a research and insights division that works with companies to build a better workplace from within.