10/19/2026
Would you make a $2.5M bet on the motherhood advantage?
Pivotal, Melinda French Gates’ group of social impact organizations, just did, funding Sego Leadership’s new statewide campaign, Creating the Motherhood Advantage.
So what is the motherhood advantage?
Utah reveres mothers and values family. Yet Utah moms face the largest parenthood wage gap in the country. They earn 43.9 cents for every dollar paid to fathers.
The campaign is a bet that those values can become real opportunity. Over the next two years, it aims to:
-Increase public support for working mothers by 20%
-Close the gender pay gap by 8 cents, bringing Utah in line with the national average
-Grow professional part-time roles and returnships for moms coming back to work
My mission at home and my mission at work have turned out to be the same one.
At home, I’m a mom raising a son who will grow up thinking it’s normal for his mom to lead a company and run school pick-up. At work, I place leaders inside companies that treat culture as their competitive advantage. We believe in it enough that a Canadian-headquartered company is launching America’s Most Admired Cultures in Park City in spring 2027.
Sego connects those two worlds. It gives mothers a real pathway to leadership, whether they’re climbing now or coming back to launch their second act.
People talk about “balancing” motherhood and leadership as if one costs you the other. I see it differently. Motherhood is where I learned to make hard calls on little sleep, negotiate with someone who won’t take no for an answer, and lead with heart. That’s the advantage.
Melanie see you in NYC. My bags are packed, and my pick-up duty is covered.
