WFWP UK Hosts Work-Life Balance Webinar

Written by Cassandra Humble

On September 19, WFWP UK hosted its second webinar which was part of the series on Work-Life Balance: A Myth to the Modern Woman. This webinar featured five inspiring women who spoke on the theme of balancing womanhood and motherhood. 

The speakers included Dr. Gemma Munro, Marea Torensen, Gaëlle Beruel, Lynnda Houston and Roskje Hasseldine. The event brought clarity and awareness to the debate surrounding female identity, along with the concept of balance in life and the importance of self-care as well as personal growth. 

The format of these webinars offers each speaker the opportunity to share their thoughts on what the themes mean to them, as well as their experiences of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood. 

The first speaker, Gemma, spoke about her experience as an award-winning speaker for Google, PayPal, Qantas, Vodafone and the NHS, and how these experiences allowed her to understand the demands of her busy professional schedule and her blended family. 

Marea spoke about her struggles as a new mom in an unfamiliar country and how she was able to develop personal wellness and learned how to accept support from those around her. 

Gaëlle is a motivational speaker, a mindset mentor and a wellbeing expert, as well as a UK Ambassador for the Psychologies magazine. She shared her experience of trying and failing to be the perfect mother and spoke about her journey to find the truth of her inner strengths. 

The fourth speaker, Lynnda, is the founder of Inner Wellness Woman and was recently appointed the Vice President of WFWP Sweden. She spoke about her experience as a new and young mother. She also passionately advocated for greater recognition of the role mothers play in society, as well as the concept of a pre and post personal identity. 

Finally, Roskje spoke about her role as an internationally recognized mother-daughter relationship therapist, broadening the discussion to include a lineal understanding of how generational communication from mother to daughter, impacts female self-identity and the growth of families across time. 

This second series was moderated by WFWP UK President, Mitty Tohma, and the Q&A was directed by Cassandra Humble. The Q&A raised key themes including whether there is a balance to be struck between motherhood and womanhood, what role wifehood plays in determining female identity and acknowledging how women’s identities grow when they become mothers. 

The question: is balance overrated? This was asked early on in the conference, the premise being that, throughout our lives, we don’t look back and remember a moment being “balanced,” rather we remember something as joyful or sad. 

The audience was asked to recognize that we feel different things in different moments. This concept of rethinking the notion of “balance” in motherhood and womanhood was agreed upon by the speakers, who argued that the concept was misleading because life is messy and unpredictable. Instead of seeking balance, we should seek to be our own holistic person in all aspects of our lives.

Another theme explored by the speakers was understanding how women’s identities grow as they become mothers and wives. It was discussed that women often struggle to know what they need, feel and desire, and that this behavior is often learned from their mothers. 

Furthermore, women often sacrifice their individual identity for the mantle of motherhood and feel a sense of guilt if they see to their own needs above those of the family. The speakers provided a broad range of responses and offered considerable insight into this challenging and personal topic.