Resources & News
Podcasts Featuring Amy
Tending Book Launch Party Recap
Yesterday my publisher NationBuilder hosted a launch event for Tending: Parenthood and the Future of Work. If you missed it, click here to catch the recording.
Happy Mother's Day. Tending is (finally) here!
Today’s the day! After more than 5 years and writing and re-writing my book, it’s finally here! “Tending: Parenthood and the Future of Work,” is available as an ebook today (the print version will be available on Father’s Day)! I chose to publish the ebook today--Mother’s Day, May 9, 2021--because I am hopeful that today will be a day of deep reckoning for our nation. For far too long we have not supported our working moms, or our working dads. The pandemic has finally made this visible. And we cannot go back to the way things were before.
Why I wrote Tending
I wrote ‘Tending: Parenthood and the Future of Work,’ to heal myself. The book chronicles my own deeply personal quest to understand motherhood, and parenthood more broadly, in our modern times. I needed to give voice to my own experiences because I feared what would happen if I remained silent.
How parents make the workplace better for everyone
"Before the pandemic, parents took on Ringling Bros. Circus-level juggling in order to conceal the realities of caregiving from the workplace. But now, no level of circus artistry can conceal the impact and importance of care responsibilities in our private lives, as well our professional ones. And that might not be a bad thing." Amy was included in this important CNN story by Elissa Strauss.
Men need to care about caregiving so the entire labor force can benefit
I'm so grateful to Darby Saxbe for the incredible work she's doing. As a researcher, she is focused on understanding more about the drastic changes that come with parenthood. She has found that becoming a parent is a critical window: if we don't get the support we need during the early phase of parenthood, it is likely to set us on a negative, long-term trajectory.
It's time for us to support, resource, and value the people who provide care. She believes, as I do, that if men are empowered to participate more in care labor, society may actually start to value it.
Our Brains on Parenthood
Did you know that our brains are more plastic in the year after our babies are born, than any other time in our adult lives? Amy and Lori Mihalich-Levin often share the same soapbox about how parenthood grows our leadership muscles. And they are passionate about sharing the neuroscience research that backs up this claim.
Thank you, Lori Mihalich-Levin with Mindful Return, for interviewing Amy Henderson on a recent blog post. Amy shares about her working mother journey, why the sleep-deprived fog of so-called “baby brain” actually helps new parents' brains develop, the top message Amy hopes readers of her new book "Tending" will take with them, and her number one piece of advice for working parents.
‘Power Moms’ explain how parenthood made them better leaders, Fortune
In her new book, Power Moms: How Executive Mothers Navigate Work and Life, longtime Wall Street Journal columnist Joann Lublin explores and compares how two generations of mothers—boomers and Gen Xers—have navigated career and parenting challenges.
Amy is grateful to be featured in this book, and in the Fortune article, about how motherhood can make us better at work, but only if we have the support we need.
Here’s What Working Parents Should Envy About Norway, Forbes
2020 has proven that there is no future of work without supporting working parents. We can take a few pages from Norway's book because doing the right thing can be good business.
Thank you, Jennifer Barrett, for including Amy in this mission-critical piece.
Why Mothering Makes Us Better At Work
Why Mothering Makes Us Better At Work
Published on May 11, 2017
Amy Henderson
This story was originally published on LinkedIn on May 11, 2017. It struck a chord then and does now with more than 8,000 engagements and more than 400 comments.
It’s time, once and for all, to debunk two related myths about motherhood: When a woman becomes a mother she will be less effective at work. When a woman becomes a mother her career will inevitably suffer.
The opposite is true. Both anecdotal evidence and academic research show that women who choose to become mothers develop the capacity to outperform their former non-mom selves in their careers. I know this from personal experience, from interviewing more than 120 high-performing mothers, and from research from a variety of fields, including neuroscience, evolutionary biology, game theory, primate patterns, leadership studies, and more.
Becoming A Mom Makes Women Better At Work, Forbes
Speaking from her personal experience, Mary Beth Ferrante shares that having a baby made her more ambitious.
This Unfamiliar Concept Makes Women Better Professionals In The Workplace, Forbes
Something that 86 percent of women have gone through but cannot define the term. Matrescence describes the process of becoming a mother being an identity transition that has specific neurobiological impacts that not only prime a woman for care taking responsibilities but also make them better in the workplace.
Tending the podcast pilot
Tending is a podcast series pilot about the complex intersection between work and parenthood in the US. The pilot is hosted by Amy Henderson, CEO of TendLab, and executive produced by Ahri Golden.
‘FamTech’ Founders Come Together To Care For Families During COVID-19 Crisis, Forbes
The FamTech Founders Collaborative timely work to support families during the COVID-19 crisis was recently featured in Forbes.
The Data is in: Supporting Parents is Good Business
Amy cofounded TendLab to help companies recognize and realize the value of their parent employees--for the benefit of everyone. Hear from Amy about how TendLab optimizes the workforce for today’s working parents.
