M+WORK: 3 TED Talks Every Working Mother Should Watch

If you’re balancing work, motherhood, identity (and your inbox), this one’s for you. These TED talks don’t offer lifehacks or hustle culture platitudes instead they offer clarity, compassion, and the kind of perspective that stays with you long after the school run or the client call.

Whether you're feeling overlooked, overstretched or just over it, take fifteen minutes with any of these and feel your shoulders drop. They’re not about being more productive — they’re about being more you. Because ambition and motherhood can live side by side — and sometimes, you just need a reminder.

Dana Sumpter — Don’t Underestimate Working Mothers

A powerful rallying cry that flips the script on how working mothers are perceived. Dana Sumpter, a business professor and mother, draws on both personal experience and academic research to argue that motherhood sharpens leadership skills not dulls them.
Watch it when: you’re feeling undervalued or boxed in professionally.
Message to take with you: Your motherhood is not a professional liability it’s an advantage.

Laura Vanderkam — How to Gain Control of Your Free Time

This is the talk for you if you find yourself constantly saying, “There’s just not enough time.” Vanderkam reframes the way we think about time, showing us that it’s not about having more hours — it’s about being intentional with the ones we already have.
Watch it when: your to-do list is longer than your patience.
Message to take with you: You don’t build a life around your schedule, you build your schedule around what really matters.

Julie Ellison — Having It All: For Working Mothers Everywhere

Warm, funny, and wonderfully real, Julie Ellison’s talk is a love letter to every woman trying to “have it all” and quietly wondering if that’s ever been the point. She shares her own story with refreshing honesty, reminding us that choosing what matters is more powerful than doing it all.
Watch it when: you’re stuck in comparison mode or burning out.
Message to take with you: Having it all is a myth. Having what matters is enough.