Joeli Brearley MBE

Joeli Brearley is the founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, a campaign group established in 2015 following her own experience with pregnancy discrimination. Under her leadership, the organisation is transforming the narrative for mothers in the UK and working to eliminate the motherhood penalty of income, hiring and employment disadvantages mothers frequently face. In 2023, Pregnant Then Screwed provided support to over 60,000 women with free advice and helped secure £1.3 million in settlement agreements for mothers facing discrimination. The campaign is credited with influencing a £5.1 billion Government investment in childcare, as well as the introduction of new flexible working and redundancy protection laws.

Recognised for her impact, Joeli has been named one of Vogue’s top 25 most influential British women shaping 2021 and beyond, and The New Statesman included her in their list of 50 most influential people in Britain’s progressive politics in 2023. She has also been featured twice in Women in Westminster: the 100, which honors the achievements of women in the political sphere who inspire the next generation to make a difference.

Her debut book, The Motherhood Penalty: How to Stop Motherhood Being the Kiss of Death for Your Career. Here, she shares her insights into how unscrupulous and discriminatory work practices towards pregnant employees have become normalised - as well as providing tools for how to challenge and dismantle them. She brings this expertise to speeches, where she covers everything from how to counter the narrative of implicit bias, as well as how to build and lead effective campaigns. She also covers how to build workplaces that are adaptive to pregnancy and parenting - and how doing so makes good business sense for employers.