Rihanna, Amal Clooney: Inspiring, powerful women who didn’t let motherhood stop them from their work

Being a mother can be a full-time job, and at times, a thankless one. 

Think about it. 24-hour shifts, 365 days a year, with no pay, no leave, and no health benefits – who would sign up for that kind of job? 

The answer – a mother.

We know not everyone has someone to call mom. But the ones who do sometimes take them for granted. We get tired of the incessant nagging, the overbearing lectures, and the endless worrying.

But we should remember too; being a mother is hard. It’s a lot of trial and error – she’s bound to make mistakes, bad choices, or say the wrong things, just as we do. No mother is entirely perfect, not even the most powerful woman in the world. 

At the end of the day, the mothers who do care are still trying their best.

They too, were once young girls with dreams – now they’re doing the best for their children no matter the circumstances. Working mothers struggle especially with juggling their careers and ambitions, as motherhood itself is a full-time job on its own.

Sometimes it’s just a mom and a pram against the world. Source: AFP

Motherhood seems thankless

25% of working mothers were forced to turn down promotions just to balance parenting and work. Even then, their job doesn’t get easier. 

Another report revealed that 59% of working mothers say they have experienced the motherhood penalty, also known as facing decreased opportunities and lower pay after having children. And if that weren’t enough, the same report revealed that 71% of working mothers experience guilt about their work-family balance.

“Working is affecting my ability to be a good present mom and wife,” writes this new mother on Reddit. “I’m so mentally drained by the end of every day, and even the days I do have childcare and help, I can get caught up with work and house chores, but then it’s either right back to being dirty or we have another priority at work. I can’t wait years for it to be easier. I love being a mom so much but my god I am miserable.”

Indeed, parenting takes time.

Raising children to become kind, thoughtful, responsible and functional adults isn’t easy, especially without help. Mothers have to rely on things like daycare, maids, babysitters and nannies, or purchase time-saving appliances and services just to pull through their regular day job, before coming home to even more work.

Worst of all, not every mother is fortunate to have the resources or financial ability to hire help with a child.

As a result, it’s hard to juggle a job while trying to be present for the family, let alone advancing a career. The women who are able to do it most likely are in a higher income bracket, aren’t confined to a traditional nine-to-five, or have the willpower and strength of a thousand warriors. 

We’ve compiled a few examples below:

Many may remember Jacinda Ardern for how effectively she handled COVID-19 in New Zealand. Source: AFP

Powerful women, powerful mothers

Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern attended the University of Waikato and graduated with a Bachelor of Communication Studies in politics and public relations, a specialist three-year degree. She also spent a semester abroad at Arizona State University in 2001.

In 2018, she became the second world leader to give birth while in office. The former prime minister of New Zealand discovered she was pregnant only six days before she was elected, and it was “100% a surprise.”

But as the youngest prime minister ever to be elected, she took it in stride; Ardern gave birth and returned to office after a mere six-week maternity leave. 

“I am not the first woman to multi-task. I am not the first woman to work and have a baby – there are many women who have done this before,” said Arden in a statement reported by the New Zealand Herald. 

But she was honest about it.

There was no neat hack or solution – she acknowledged that, yes, sometimes her baby would have to appear at the United Nations General Assembly. Certain flights had to be rescheduled, or her plans had to shift. And ultimately, all these wouldn’t mean she wasn’t up to fulfilling her role as prime minister.

In 2023, Ardern decided to step down as prime minister. She announced that she no longer had “enough in the tank” to perform the job to the standards it required. 

“I’m not leaving because it was hard – had that been the case, I probably would have departed two months into the job,” said Arden in her announcement. “I have no plans, other than spending time with my family again – so to Neve, Mum is looking forward to being there when you start school this year. And to Clarke, let’s finally get married.”

Some of us may remember her days as a pirate. Source: AFP

Penélope Cruz

Penélope Cruz studied ballet for nine years at Spain’s National Conservatory in Madrid, then trained and studied theatre at William Esper Studio in New York City. 

The internationally acclaimed actress has made headlines for many things. Winning an Academy Award, dating Tom Cruise, receiving a BAFTA award, and claiming she was addicted to breastfeeding her children. 

The renowned Spanish actress – who has two children with husband Javier Bardem – always yearned to be a mother. “I always knew I wanted a family because of the way I grew up. Family has always been the most important thing,” said Cruz in an Allure interview. 

Cruz famously breastfed her eldest child beyond his first birthday. She then did the same with her daughter and claimed she wasn’t looking forward to stopping. 

“(Nursing) is addictive,” she confessed in an interview with Allure magazine. “It’s hard when the day comes when you have to stop.”

Despite her busy schedule, Cruz has said that it’s important for her to be a hands-on mother. During an interview with The Telegraph, she said that she had taken a step back from her career, telling the outlet, “My priorities have really changed over the years. I want to raise my kids and I don’t want to be away from them.”

Rihanna

Robyn Rihanna Fenty attended Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School and Combermere School and received the Harvard Foundation Award for Humanitarian of the Year in 2017. She was slated to receive an honorary doctorate degree from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts, she was unable to receive the degree.

Fenty, who goes by Rihanna, is one of the wealthiest and most influential singers in the world, with a net worth of over US$1.4 billion. She is also a businesswoman with her own beauty and clothing brands, an actress, and now a mother of two.

But the singer admitted that being a mom brought real fear into her life. “I’m actually afraid of shit. The well-being of your kids, you worry about that constantly,” she said in an interview. “Nobody warns you that having kids means you’re going to worry every second of your life.”

How does she do it all?  According to her, the answer is not “a good night’s sleep.” Her secret to juggling business and motherhood is expresso martinis and 5-Hour Energys.

In February 2023, during the Super Bowl halftime show performance, she revealed that she was pregnant with her second child… while singing on a suspended platform high above the State Farm Stadium field. This makes her the first person to headline a Super Bowl performance while pregnant. Her performance also went viral – Rihanna‘s Super Bowl Halftime Show is officially the most-watched halftime show performance of all time.

“It’s this knowing that you can do anything, even things that seem the craziest,” she explained, adding that she still can’t believe she told the NFL “yes.”

Ultimately, she said she was “geeked on a challenge like that because you know what your body just did.”

“You feel this sense of: ‘Nothing is impossible,'” she added.

Amal Clooney is famous for frequently representing victims of mass atrocities, including genocide and sexual violence in extremely high-profile cases. Source: AFP

Amal Clooney

Amal Clooney attended St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Jurisprudence. She then enrolled in the New York University School of Law for an LLM degree. 

Today, she is a renowned British barrister specializing in international law and human rights and has been involved in various initiatives to protect the rights of marginalised groups. But some likely know her for her marriage to George Clooney, or for wearing four-and-a-half-inch heels while pregnant. Thanks, media!

After announcing her pregnancy – with twins, no less – Clooney still balanced her professional commitments while preparing for motherhood. She attended events, such as a reception hosted by The Clooney Foundation for Justice in London and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Switzerland, where she was honoured for raising awareness about the plight of the Yazidi people.

But the mother-to-be had to make some sacrifices.

Before motherhood, she frequently visited dangerous places and countries to attend to high-profile clients – she even took on ISIS to defend her client, a human trafficking survivor. 

“We decided to be much more responsible, to avoid the danger,” her husband said in an interview with French outlet Paris Match. “I won’t go to South Sudan any more or the Congo, Amal will no longer go to Iraq and she’ll avoid places where she knows she isn’t welcome.”

Three months after the 39-year-old gave birth, she returned to work. Her first order of business? Advocating for international human rights at the United Nations. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a recipient of the W.E.B Du Bois Medal, Harvard University’s highest honour in the field of African and African American studies. Source: AFP

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie studied communication and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University and received a master’s degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University. She also studied African history at Yale University.

The Nigerian author gained international acclaim for her books “Purple Hibiscus” and “Half of a Yellow Sun,” which depicted the devastation caused by the Nigerian Civil War. She is widely considered one of the most influential voices in contemporary African literature.

Her works often explore themes of identity, gender, culture, and colonialism. She has also received numerous academic awards, fellowships, and other honours, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008 and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. Her TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” is one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time. 

Work aside, Adichie keeps most of her family life private, only revealing that she gave birth to a daughter in 2016. But she opened up in a recent interview, sharing that she’d struggled to find her “fictional space” after giving birth and had battled constipation and aching joints during pregnancy.

“Becoming a mother is a glorious gift, but it comes at a cost. I could probably have written two novels had I not had my child,” Adichie said.