The German Japanese Professional Women's Network organized in May an online event for German and Japanese working mothers. It was an opportunity to share working mothers’ experiences, how their working environments are, and to learn from one another, gain courage and get inspired. The objective was to connect working mothers and give them the opportunity to learn how others are coping with their daily tasks.

Naturally, each of the participants has their personal stories: how they started their career, how they share the housekeeping & childcare tasks with their partners, and whether the companies they are working for are family-friendly. The job position, family circumstances, goals, all of these are different for each individual. Thus, the participants could learn a lot from one another. Some participants held management positions, and they could share their thoughts and specific challenges, which was very valuable.

Participants agreed that the best course of action would be allowing working mother to design their careers by themselves, meaning that they could choose to work full-time or part-time freely, without external pressures. But the most important thing observed, is that working mothers know what they want - what makes them happy and what they are looking for in their lives. This was not necessarily an easy question to answer.

Source: The German Japanese Professional Women's Network (GJPWN)