🌺 Breaking the Glass Ceiling While Raising a Large Family

 


For generations, the phrase “breaking the glass ceiling” has symbolized women’s struggle to reach the highest levels of leadership — in boardrooms, universities, and beyond. The question often follows: Can women rise to CEO or senior academic administrator roles while raising a large family? The answer, increasingly, is yes — but not without redesigning the architecture of success itself.

💼 The Modern Reality

Women who lead major organizations or academic institutions while raising four or more children are no longer anomalies. They represent a quiet revolution in how leadership and family coexist. These women are not balancing in the traditional sense — they are integrating. Their lives are mosaics of overlapping commitments, supported by intentional systems rather than perfect equilibrium.

🧩 What Makes It Possible

Several patterns emerge among women who reach the top while nurturing large families:

  • Strategic delegation and partnership Success often depends on shared domestic leadership — partners who co‑parent fully, older children who contribute, and extended family or community networks that fill the gaps.

  • Boundary clarity These women learn to say no — not from guilt, but from wisdom. They protect time for family and for rest as fiercely as they protect time for work.

  • Institutional flexibility Progressive workplaces and universities now recognize that talent retention depends on flexibility. Remote work, parental leave, and outcome‑based evaluation make it possible for mothers to lead without sacrificing family.

  • Purpose‑driven leadership Many women channel their caregiving experience into empathetic, inclusive leadership styles. They lead with relational intelligence — a skill honed at home and invaluable in complex organizations.

🌿 The Cultural Shift

The deeper transformation isn’t just personal; it’s structural. As more women demonstrate that leadership and motherhood can coexist, the myth of incompatibility erodes. The conversation moves from “Can she do it?” to “How can we design systems that let more women do it?”

✨ The Takeaway

Breaking the glass ceiling while raising a large family is possible — but not because women have become superhuman. It’s possible because they’ve redefined success: from perfection to presence, from competition to collaboration, from endurance to design.

The ceiling cracks not only when women rise, but when institutions evolve to meet them halfway.

image and some content/research AI-generated


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post inspired by I Love My Kids, But I Don't Always Like Them (Franki Bagdade)




For more posts by and about this book and its author, Franki Bagdade click HERE.





Book Description:

Selected as Independent Authors' Network Book of the Year as the Outstanding Parenting Book and winner of the Literary Titan Gold Award, I Love My Kids, But I Don't Always Like Them, is the ultimate survival guide for parents living through one of the strangest times in history. This " how to guide" will support you even if you are exhausted and burnt out in improving your child(ren)'s behavior. Written by an expert with 20 years of experience in behavioral observation in the classroom, in overnight camp, and more. Franki's storyteller cadence helps the book to read as if it's a casual conversation and pep talk between two parents over coffee. Franki is raw, authentic, and honest about her own "mom fails" and what she has learned in her own little lab school, as she raises her three children.

Franki is a parenting expert in her own right with a Masters in Special Education and most of a Masters in Clinical Social Work (pandemic purchase!) at the time she wrote this book. However, you will hear no judgement in this author's advice as she lays out methods to help parents with all types of struggles from anxiety, ADHD and sensory difficulties, to raising siblings with competing needs, to learning when to let go and when to reach out to a professional.

Does your child struggle with age expected tasks and have difficulty socially, trouble focusing, managing school, listening to directions or with sibling relations? Is your family struggling because one of your children seems to consume all your parental energy? Are you overwhelmed when your child misbehaves (again)! This book was written to support all parents. Each chapter concludes with key points, in case you read in 5 minute increments between webinars and school pick up lines. Short, insightful, and funny! Because after all, parenting can be funny!


Amazon Customers say (summary of reviews), 4.8 stars, 71 reviews


Customers find the book valuable for parenting advice, with one noting its practical insights from a seasoned educator. Moreover, the book is easy to read, with one customer mentioning it reads like a friend is talking to you. Additionally, customers appreciate its humor, with one noting it makes them laugh out loud, and they value its personal and humble approach.


BOOK AWARDS

IAN Book of the Year
Literary Titan gold award

CONTACT editor@msipress.com FOR A REVIEW COPY


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