- More women perform paid labor, yet spend the same amount of time caring for children than they did 50 years ago.
- Since the US government offers little help to working mothers, some entrepreneurial parents took matters into their own hands.
- From companies that offer digital family planning help, to those that find in-home childcare, here are 8 startups helping moms re-enter the workforce.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Getting back into the workforce after childbirth isn't easy — and that's why some moms are helping each other make the transition.
Working women make up a larger share of the workforce than years past. Mothers today spend 16 more hours a week performing paid labor than they did 50 years ago, though they spend just as much time with their children as stay-at-home mothers did in the 1970s, according to the Pew Research Center and The New York Times.
Read more: Women spend 7 more years working than men and get no money or credit for it
The amount of work childcare takes on top of a paid job leaves women with no other option but to quit working: 43% of women with children leave the workforce at some point in their careers. Despite the loss of productivity, the US lags behind developed countries in providing paid parental leave and childcare.
Some moms are taking matters into their own hands. Entrepreneurial women started companies that connect mothers and companies with flexible work hours, or ship breast milk home during work trips. Women also built apps to help moms find support systems, or send videos to their children remotely.
Business Insider rounded up eight startups helping moms re-enter the workforce, most of them founded by moms themselves. Here they are:
SEE ALSO: Women spend 7 more years working than men and get no money or credit for it
Werk is an online platform that connects mothers to workplaces with flexible hours.
Annie Dean and Anna Auerbach are the co-founders and co-CEOs of Werk, an online people analytics platform that helps mothers return to the workforce.
Dean and Auerbach founded Werk in 2016 in New York, and now they have users from around the world. Prospective employees can choose from a range of companies to connect with based on their weekly schedules, letting them work when it's convenient for them.
"When we started Werk, our goal was not just to make the workplace more flexible for women, but to ultimately create a new kind of workplace that supports and facilitates the ascension of women to leadership," Dean told Business Insider.
Caribu is a video-calling app designed with children in mind.
Most video-calling apps display one user's face in the corner of the screen, and the other's face all over the rest of the screen. This can make video-calling with kids difficult. What if you want to read a them a book?
Caribu, a Miami-based startup, lets kids talk to their loved ones over video while giving them an ample enough screen to add other activities.
Maxeme Tuchman, Caribu's co-founder, told Business Insider its mission is to bring families together. "Caribu helps any mother, or grandmother, ensure she can get a bedtime story in no matter if she's traveling, working late or living far away," she said.
Maven is a virtual clinic for women and families.
Maven, a New York-based startup, was founded by Kate Ryder in 2014. It's designed to help women find healthcare professionals — anyone from OB-GYNs and nurse practitioners to midwives and doulas.
Maven also provides support for working women in the form of healthcare advocates. "Just the other day, Maven helped a woman who was on a work trip to Singapore ship her breast milk home to her baby in the US," Ryder told Business Insider.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider