Seven years ago, on my mother’s birthday, I opened my laptop and started a Facebook group called Moms at Work.
I had been self-employed for just over a year and deeply disappointed by what I was finding in women’s spaces. They were cliquey. Transactional. Hard to navigate. Everyone said the right things—but there was very little real advocacy, and no meaningful systems-level change.
Networking events didn’t help. Same people. Same stages. Same conversations I didn’t care about.
(Congrats, Steve, on launching your next company with your dad’s money, a full-time stay-at-home partner, and a nanny)
I knew a different kind of network existed. I just couldn’t find it.
So I built it.
We were the leaders and the middle managers.
The workers and the decision-makers.
Heads of school councils.
Women in government, tech, pharma, non-profit, social impact, and finance.
We controlled how household money was spent. What cars were bought. Which camps our kids went to. We had influence, whether anyone acknowledged it or not.
This community would exist only for working mothers.
No sponsors. No donors. No government funding.
Just women investing in themselves, in each other—and yes, in me.
We would go after companies that hurt our people.
We would advocate loudly.
We would show up at human rights tribunals—and win.
We would change legislation.
Seven years ago, I made a list. This was how I’d know it was working:
- Low-cost childcare
- Pay transparency and negotiation
- Tax benefits for families
- EI reform
- Train 500+ employers on parental leave
- Help 500 working mothers get jobs
- Help 500 working mothers make more money
What wasn’t on the list, but lived in my head, was this:
I wanted people to know Moms at Work was fighting for them.
I wanted being part of this community to mean something. To be a flex. It meant they were part of something special.
I wanted working mothers to feel safe saying they were tired—knowing we’d keep going even if they needed to put things down for a while.
And personally?
I wanted my mom to be proud—from wherever people go when they die.
I wanted my dad to be able to tell his friends that his daughter was a big deal—and that he helped shape the person she became.
So… how did we do?
- We helped launch the Canada Child Care Benefit—meeting publicly with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister during the pandemic
- We brought Pay Transparency legislation into law in BC, PEI, and Ontario
- We helped push for $10-a-day childcare across Canada
- We changed EI (with more work to do): removing the waiting period, lowering qualifying hours during COVID, expanding protections for pregnant workers, adoptive parents, and those in short-term roles, increasing sick leave, and more
- We trained over 3,000 HR professionals, employers, and individuals through myparentalleave.ca—and made it free, because access matters
- We’ve helped thousands of women secure new jobs
- Moms at Work Collective members have negotiated over $11 million in salary and compensation to date
We did it.
And we did it together.
At a time when the world feels heavy—when it’s hard to spot the bright places or the people still fighting—I hope this makes your day a little better.
Fighting for you.
Laughing with you.
Teaching you.
Supporting you.
Building with you.
It has been the privilege of my life.
I am so proud of you.
Love,
AL
