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After the birth of her son, Emily Fultz took her employer's nine-month maternity leave — but it didn't stop her company from promoting her to supervisor in the middle of a global pandemic.
“Before my son was born, I had several career conversations with my manager and different leaders on my team,” Fultz says. “One of them told me ‘The level and quality of the work you’ve contributed to this team up until this point doesn’t go away just because you’re having a baby,’ which really meant a lot.”
Fultz is now the product marketing manager at Salesforce, a San Francisco-based internet company. Prior to this promotion, Fultz helped organize webinars and events for the Cloud Marketing team — now, she’s one of its leaders. She plans to step into this new role full-time at the conclusion of her nine-month maternity leave.
Fultz’ promotion is a rarity during a time when record numbers of women are being forced to leave the workforce. In April, 55% of the 20.5 million jobs lost that month belonged to women, according to the National Women’s Law Center. The numbers haven’t improved much; in June, 11.2% of women aged 20 and up were unemployed — one percent point higher than men.
COVID-19 hasn’t made it any easier for working mothers. The New York Times has gone so far as to label the economic recession caused by the pandemic a “she-cession” because more women are losing their jobs than men.
Read More: Coronavirus is pushing the gender gap even wider for working moms