By Elizabeth Maxson, Chief Marketing Officer, Contentful
I moved jobs in my third trimester, pregnant with my fourth child.
To some, it seemed like bold timing, especially after more than a decade at the same company. Conventional wisdom suggests that when it comes to motherhood, women should optimise for stability, protect the status quo, minimise risk and ultimately stay steady.
I have often done the opposite.
With each pregnancy, I stepped into a new role immediately after returning from maternity leave. At the time, I couldn’t quite explain why. Of course I told myself I was ambitious, restless and ready for the next challenge. But over time I realised I wasn’t chasing disruption for the sake of it. I was responding to expansion. I was running toward change because something in me shifted.
At the time, what I didn’t have language for was that this shift was biological as well as emotional.
Neuroscientists have found that during pregnancy, a woman’s brain undergoes one of the most dramatic structural transformations of adult life. Areas linked to empathy, adaptability and complex decision making strengthen. The brain becomes more efficient, more attuned and more capable of scanning risk while holding nuance.
I felt that shift deeply.
I was thinking differently. Leading differently. I could hold more variables at once and sense the undercurrents in a room faster. My tolerance for ambiguity (which was already high) increased. And my ability to zoom out strategically while staying deeply connected to individual people became my superpower.
My capacity had grown and with it, my ambition.
What changed in me was not only maternal. It was cognitive and strategic. It reshaped how I understand customers, teams and possibilities. In marketing especially, we are constantly asked to “make the complex simple”, to translate data into human insight, to balance brand and performance, and to see both the system and the story. The skills being strengthened in me were not separate from my leadership. They were enhancing it.
That realisation led me to something even bigger. This is not only about mothers. This is what women do.
We are often conditioned to downplay our evolution yet so many women know the feeling of internal expansion during major shifts: motherhood, career transitions, caregiving, loss, reinvention. We become more capable, even as we feel less certain. We stretch ourselves before we stabilise. In some ways, that growth does not always translate or feel like confidence.
In early motherhood, or during any identity shift, you can feel untethered from who you once were. This can feel disorienting before it feels empowering. It can show up in different ways, from restlessness to a quiet and persistent sense that you are ready for more before you feel you are fully prepared to claim it.
We are quick to interpret that feeling as doubt. But what if it was reframed as capacity?
That is why this year’s International Women’s Day theme, “Give to Gain,” resonates so deeply with me. My interpretation is simple: give to yourself. Give yourself permission to evolve. Give yourself credit for the ways your life experience is sharpening your leadership, not sidelining it.
When you honour yourself and your expansion, you do more than advance your career. You broaden the definition of what growth can look like for women across any industry.
Growth is not a departure from who you were. It is evidence of who you are becoming.
