Basically, I think we need pioneers. I chose not to pursue children in my 20s because I wanted to gain the experience required to get into a senior position to then have children. This would then result in a more Perth position. I didn't see many technical women having children as FIFO onsite. Only 1 and she had a very supportive husband.
I'm now a single mum. I just completed a masters in project and program management and I am constantly looking for ways to upskill. I am an exploration manager and have a very supportive boss. If I'm able to plan my work, I manage. I am now looking at ways to possibly have another child by myself and that means outsourcing and being resourceful.
Women are incredibly resilient and when you don't have a choice, you just do. I read the book Kick Ass Single Mum and I believe all women regardless of marital status should read it. We run households, manage finances, the kids and then our work but it's possible, it may be exhausting at times, but that's where we need to work out where our energy goes. I also need to ensure I pay my mortgage, so I'm working on ensuring I upskill and ensure I remain employable - it's doable.
I also think that there needs to be a subconscious effort by women to somehow switch off either a biological trigger or society driven learnt behaviour that tells women oh you can't work away from your kids, whereby men somehow do it quite regularly (not saying they don't miss their kids) but it's not inhibiting men as much as it's inhibiting women. Women are missing out on amazing opportunities to build wealth still - take one look at the Perth airport on a weekday and see how many men are off to 6 figure jobs.
This is something I think about a lot, how do we empower, step into being uncomfortable, turn off some guilt, really emphasise that our kids will see mum working and achieving as a positive - Harvard did a study into this and the results are amazing and inspiring - both for little girls and boys.