Diversity Commitment

Motherly’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging

* This pledge was sent to Motherly staff on June 8, 2020, updated in January 2021, June ‘21, June ‘22 and most  recently, in July ‘23.  While we’re proud of the progress we have made, we realize this is a journey that we have committed ourselves to and we are determined to make real sustainable change. We will continue to drive forward for meaningful diversity and inclusion improvements in 2023 and beyond. We will continue to update this page as further commitments are made and tangible action is taken.

We believe in inclusivity, that every mother deserves to be supported on her journey and has a home at Motherly.

We commit to continuing to use our platform to advocate for systemic change that advances equality and justice for all BIPOC mamas and their families.

• January ‘21: Understanding our Year of the Mother efforts were overtaken by COVID in 2020, we recommitted ourselves to being the voice of the modern mother in 2021, shining a light on the current State of Motherhood.
• June ‘21: We revealed our 4th Annual State of Motherhood survey results in May. Data was weighted to U.S. census data, ensuring we portrayed an accurate and true representation of BIPOC mothers. 
• June ‘22: We revealed our 5th Annual State of Motherhood survey results in May. Historically underrepresented respondents doubled year-over-year and in 2023, we aim for 35% of mothers who respond to be moms of historically excluded groups. Data was weighted to the U.S. census data, ensuring we portrayed an accurate and true representation of BIPOC mothers. State of Motherhood 2022 coverage will continue throughout the year and themes and topics will include, but are not limited to, the childcare crisis for BIPOC mothers, AAPI Heritage Month, and Black Breastfeeding Week.
• July ‘23: In an effort to highlight the unique experiences that Black mothers face in America, we published a special edition of the Motherly State of Motherhood report: Black Mothering in America. Our 6th Annual State of Motherhood Report had 25% of respondents from historically excluded groups and for our 2024 survey, we aim to have 30% of mothers who respond to be from historically excluded groups.  

We commit to establishing corporate goals to ensure we are delivering more inclusive content to help all mothers find a home at Motherly.

• January ‘21: 2021 goals were updated to include specific diversity and inclusion measures and targets across our organization. Making sure all mothers are reflected in all we do is a top goal for 2021.
• June ‘21: Our revised editorial manual and photography manual provides for additional inclusiveness filters and we remain committed to publishing more inclusive and diverse content to tell the stories about, and by, BIPOC mothers. 
• June ‘22:  We’ve expanded our content guidelines to ensure we are consistently giving a platform for diverse voices and experiences including BIPOC, neurodiversity, people with a disability, social diversity and diversity of lived experiences. We launched the This is Motherhood mini-series podcast, hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist Joyce Brewer, centered on the perspectives of mothers of color. We commit that 30% of our podcast guests across our podcasts are BIPOC and other historically disadvantaged groups.  
• July ‘23:  We prioritized and published more stories highlighting diverse perspectives and advocacy efforts through the Motherly Collective, including pieces from partners like Bobbie for Change and on issues like Black maternal health. In 2023, more than 50% of our podcast guests identified as part of a historically underrepresented group, surpassing our 2022 goal of 30%. In 2023, 25% of our Motherly Collective contributors self-identified as BIPOC and from other historically disadvantaged groups. Our goal for 2024 is to increase this number to 30%. 

We commit to actively seeking more diverse writers and content contributors.

• January ‘21: Representation is a top focus for us in 2021 and we are working to ensure we can give authentic voice across all racial, body-type, ability, socio-economic, gender, and religious diversity. In 2020 we created the Motherly Collective to diversify and amplify a variety of voices and experiences on our platforms. This year we’ve elevated this role and increased the budget to support these endeavors. 
• June ‘21: We continue to build out our Motherly Collective, onboarding writers from all walks of life, lifestyles and experiences. This year we are focused on elevating voices and experiences related to health and wellbeing, expanding the diversity and breadth of our content and contributors.
• June ‘22: Motherly’s freelance network continues to expand to tell stories bylined by authors with unique and varied lived experiences and of historically excluded backgrounds. We will continue to create content focused on the health and wellbeing of mothers, with expert-driven stories and personal narratives.  We commit that 30% of our freelance contributors represent BIPOC, body diversity and people with a disability. 
• July ‘23: We have continued to prioritize publishing more stories that focus on alternate paths to parenthood, like those highlighting donor conception and surrogacy and the LGBTQIA+ experience, as well as stories on raising an LGBTQIA+ child. In 2023, we are inviting our freelance writers to self-select their race and gender identity to ensure we are meeting our goal to have at least 30% of our freelance contributors represent BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities, sharing the stories of the historically underrepresented.

We commit to ensuring all mothers and all mothers’ needs are represented in the products and classes we curate and develop. 

• January ‘21: In 2020 we leaned into diversity in our Shop and worked to achieve 10% of the products we sell in our shop to be from minority-owned businesses by the end of 2021.
• June ‘21: In 2021 we are evolving our focus to a curation of primarily Motherly owned and developed and committed to ensuring our products and services are developed with all mothers in mind and that all goods developed feature a diverse range of mothers and their experiences. 
• June ‘22: In 2022, we launched a classes platform for experts and licensed professionals to sell digital classes designed to empower mothers. We will deliberately seek out instructors of color and from a diverse range of lived experiences to provide a platform for all that can appeal to all. We aim for a minimum of 20% of our instructors to represent BIPOC, body diversity and people with a disability.
• July ‘23: In January of 2023, we announced that all registered users would receive free access to Classes by Motherly, our on-demand parenting class platform. Understanding 50% of children in the US are born on WIC and Medicaid, and the importance of education as a social determinant of health, making these resources free and accessible to all is critical to achieving our mission of empowering every mother to thrive. 

We commit to increasing diversity and inclusiveness in Motherly photography and videography.

• January ‘21: We are working to represent more diverse faces and topics in our visuals and strive to show more Black and brown faces as we strive to reflect the state of all mothers. We require a minimum of one-third of images featured in articles, email, and video to represent BIPOC, body diversity, and multiple ability faces.
• June ‘21: One third of images featured in articles, email and video represent BIPOC, body diversity, and multiple ability faces, with an aim to reach 40% by the end of 2021. Our photography guidelines are updated to ensure additional inclusivity language. 
• June ‘22: We audited our photography and video guidelines to the AAP and AP style recommendations to ensure inclusivity and have expanded our guidelines to ensure we consistently represent BIPOC, diversity in physical-ableness, social diversity and diversity of lived experiences. 
• July ‘23:  In 2023, we achieved our goal of having 40% of our images featured in articles, email and video represent BIPOC, body diversity, and multiple ability faces. We will continue to track our image representation and will prioritize a continued goal of 40%. 

We continue our commitment of deliberately recruiting more employees of color, especially into leadership positions.

• January ‘21: With every opening on our growing team, we are prioritizing recruitment of qualified talent from diverse candidate pools to help align our internal team composition with the composition of today’s modern mamas with specific growth targets for specifically BIPOC leaders.
• June ‘21: To achieve our goal of hiring more employees of color into leadership positions, we have implemented additional diversity targeted requirements for all open positions into our hiring strategy. 
• June ‘22’: We have increased our accessibility to source diverse candidates by expanding our recruitment efforts to specific job boards that cater to underrepresented talent populations outside of our own networks. We commit that 80%+ of new hires are recruited specifically targeting diverse candidates.  
• July ‘23: Motherly remains committed to ensuring 80%+ of new hires are recruited specifically targeting diverse candidates. Hires are not approved without confirmation that the qualified candidate pool is representative of US demographics.  

We continue our commitment of establishing systems to retain employees of color and ensure equal pay. 

• January ‘21: Motherly conducts regular salary benchmarking studies to identify any pay inequities within our organization and are proud of our record of equal pay. Additionally, Motherly has been working to increase the percentage of team members who identify as people of color. 18% of Motherly staff identified as non-white women in 2019, improving to 22% in 2020; 20% of Motherly senior leadership identified as non-white women in 2019 improving to 29% in 2020.
• June ‘21: To date, we have a 99.96% retention rate for employees that self-identify as people of color, and strive to ensure equitable pay for all employees of color through annual salary benchmarking, compensation reviews, and our culture of equality.
• June 22’: We continue to retain 99.6% of our employees who identify as people of color and through annual compensation reviews have ensured that there are no pay inequities for employees of color. 
• July ‘23: Motherly annually audits salaries across the organization to ensure we are paying employees fairly and eliminating any identified pay inequities. Motherly commits to having salary level transparency across the organization in 2024. 

We continue our commitment of creating a more inclusive workplace through employee education, self-awareness, and ingraining inclusivity into our culture. 

• January ‘21: Motherly invested in unconscious bias training for our entire company in 2020 and are committed to continued investment in diversity and inclusion training in 2021.
• June ‘21: At the core of our values is embracing diversity and differing perspectives to foster a workplace culture of inclusivity. Through intentional TeamMotherly training on diversity, equity and inclusion we continuously challenge our thinking to maintain our inclusive workplace.
• June ‘22: We launched employee user manuals and employee enneagrams that we use to understand our employee’s different work styles and personality types.  This helps us to better understand our employees and to create a more inclusive environment. We continue to provide employee and manager training as well as individual feedback to create an inclusive workplace that does not tolerate discrimination and handles it immediately. 
• July ‘23: We hosted a TeamMotherly Virtual Summit with a guest who spoke to the importance of building an inclusive company culture. We committed to increasing our individual self-awareness of different staff personality types, as well as the different lived experiences and backgrounds we represent. 

We commit to staying open to feedback from our team and our community, and to continually seek to do better to make all feel welcome and valued.

• January ‘21: We take our role seriously as the voice of today’s modern mama who is frustrated by lack of meaningful representation. We are not perfect, but are on a committed journey of continuous improvement as we work hard to raise issues of empowerment and well-being for all mothers. We actively monitor for feedback, respond and do better with each article we write, each social post we do, and every step we make toward building our brand devoted to helping mamas thrive and encourage our entire team on a weekly basis to speak their truth so we can continue to grow.
• June ’21: We actively monitor for feedback, respond and do better with each article we write, each social post we do, and every step we make toward building our brand devoted to helping mamas thrive and encourage our entire team on a weekly basis to speak their truth so we can continue to grow.
• June ‘22: We conducted our first quarterly eNPS survey in Q1, shared results with our team and conducted employee focus groups to understand where and how we can improve. Externally, we continue to actively monitor and respond to community feedback to ensure that we are inclusive as a brand.  We commit to doing the work to improve to ensure that all moms feel welcome at Motherly.  
• July ‘23: We continue to conduct quarterly eNPS surveys, sharing results with our team and hosting focus groups on areas that need improvement to ensure we are creating a welcoming environment for all employees at Motherly. 

We believe in the power of mamas to change the world as we fulfill our mission to redefine motherhood, empowering every mama to thrive.

Jill Koziol, Cofounder & CEO of Motherly

* This pledge was sent to Motherly staff on June 8, 2020, updated in January 2021, June of 2021, June of 2022 and July of 2023. While we’re proud of the progress we have made, we know it is not enough. We will continue to drive forward for meaningful diversity and inclusion improvements in 2022 and beyond. We will continue to update this page as further commitments are made and tangible action is taken.