After almost 10 years, Brearley is stepping down as chief executive of the campaigning organisation she launched in 2015 following her experience of pregnancy discrimination. She was sacked by voicemail the day after she informed her employer, a children’s charity, that she was expecting a baby.
Brearley will continue to work with Pregnant Then Screwed as an ambassador. She is also launching a podcast on raising boys with speaker and author, Elliott Rae. A new chief executive will be found for the campaigning organisation.
Her achievements with Pregnant Then Screwed have included staging the world’s largest protest of mothers, the March of the Mummies, and influencing new flexible working and redundancy protection laws. During the pandemic, Pregnant Then Screwed (PTS) successfully campaigned for pregnant women to be prioritised for the vaccine and influenced the implementation of childcare bubbles.
The charitable organisation has also supported over 300,000 women with free advice when they experienced workplace discrimination.
Brearley’s work and influence has had global recognition with support from Hilary Clinton, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Julia Gillard.
Joeli Brearley said, ‘After almost 10 years I have taken the difficult decision to step down as CEO of Pregnant Then Screwed. It has been the honour of my life to have founded this organisation, and to have grown it from a blog to a hugely successful charity that has helped hundreds of thousands of women, changed laws, won awards and given families hope for the future. My own experience of pregnancy discrimination was brutal, and I wish so much that PTS had existed all those years ago - I know it will continue to give women the sanity saving support they so desperately need in times of crisis.
‘The impact of PTS never fails to astound me, and although this job has tested me in ways I never thought possible, it has for the most part, been incredibly gratifying.
‘There are so many people to thank for their support and kindness over the last decade. The hundreds (maybe it is thousands) of volunteers who have contributed to our work, the funders and donors who believed in us, our members, the press and media who stuck their neck out to cover our stories, the MPs and civil servants, the brilliant staff team and trustees who have joined me on this rollercoaster ride and without whom PTS wouldn’t exist. And I have to mention my partner and kids who have had to endure the serious highs and the desperate lows of building this movement.’
