For over a decade, Emily Tisch Sussman was one of the top political strategists in the country, advising Democratic candidates and campaigns across the US. Then, after having three children in four years, and faced with no childcare during a global pandemic, Emily realized she couldn’t get back to the top of her game… or back in the game at all. So, she stepped away from politics and the professional identity she had known for 15 years. Now, after going through her own major pivot, she’s talking to other women about their career journeys on the 'She Pivots' podcast.
In this episode, shares:
The line she used that got her every job she’s had
Why she wrote an article saying her children “killed” her career – and how she felt after writing it
Why she wasn’t connecting to the traditional narratives around being a working mother
Her advice for women who’ve also had to shift their professional identities
What it'll take for politicians to pass policies that better support families
On When She Realized Her Professional Identity Was Changing
Emily: I had this vision of how I was going right back to work. And now I had a two year old, three year old, and three week old, with no support system around me. And without childcare, I had no brain. And it was so unbelievably frustrating that my sense of accomplishment, my sense of self, anything positive that I had attributed to myself, was through my professional vision of myself. And I was going to a high stakes election where I knew that I would be good at it, and I could not do it because I had no child care, and the world was falling apart. And that was so frustrating, like it didn't just kind of kill my professional opportunities, it killed my sense of self.
On the Conventional Narrative of Being a Working Mom
Emily: I couldn't reconcile those feelings in my head, like everything that I saw in the debate around balancing motherhood and working was about [when] you feel tugged in two directions. And I actually did not, I felt tugged in one direction – towards work. And then I actually also had this responsibility of taking care of a baby and then was immediately pregnant again when he was eight months old. Like, it wasn't that there was this internal debate within me, it was just like, how am I going to do this?
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