In this episode of Trust.ID Talk: The Digital Certificate and Identity Security Podcast, host Michelle Davidson is joined by Sophie Creese, Founder of MotherBoard and Co-founder of HeyFlow, to tackle one of tech’s most urgent and misunderstood challenges: why are 50% of women leaving the industry by age 35?

What You’ll Learn:

Why the 50% attrition rate is a business problem

How to diagnose blind spots in your female talent lifecycle

The critical role the manager's life experience plays in employee support

Why the return-to-work period is a make-or-break moment

How to shift from reactive support to proactive planning

Sophie Creese is the Founder of MotherBoard and Co-founder of HeyFlow, known for her expertise in gender diversity, talent retention, and organizational culture within the tech industry. With a background in scaling technology businesses, she has identified and addressed critical gaps in how organizations support female talent across their lifecycle, particularly during reproductive life moments.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.

YouTube Chapters:

[00:00] Intro

[00:54] The 50% Drop-Off by Age 35

[02:09] The Hidden Career Lag

[03:34] Culture vs. Policy

[05:36] The £3 Billion Productivity Gap

[08:14] Post-Maternity: The Hardest Time to Advocate for Yourself

[11:00] The Importance of Re-Onboarding

[13:01] The Tech Sophie Can’t Live Without

Episode Resources:

Sophie Creese on LinkedIn

HeyFlow Website

MotherBoard Website

Michelle Davidson on LinkedIn

GlobalSign Website

Key Takeaways:

[00:42] The 50% Drop-Off by Age 35

Nearly 50% of women leave the tech industry by age 35, a trend that reveals a systemic business failure, not a personal choice. Sophie launched MotherBoard in 2020 to spotlight this overlooked crisis and reframe it as a commercial risk impacting innovation, security, and long-term growth. Building on that mission, she later founded HeyFlow, a startup that partners with large organizations to address the structural blind spots in the female talent lifecycle.

[08:21] Post-Maternity: The Hardest Time to Advocate for Yourself

Returning from maternity leave is one of the most underestimated career inflection points, and too often, the burden is placed solely on mothers to figure it out. While women should absolutely pursue opportunities that energize them and ignore external judgment, the real responsibility sits with organizations. It is not enough to ask, ‘What do you need?’ when many returning mothers are still navigating new identities and may not yet know the answer. Employers must proactively design structured support, offer clear options, plan before leave begins, and remove systemic barriers that affect reintegration and growth.

[11:12] The Importance of Re-Onboarding

Too many senior women return from maternity leave to find their confidence shaken, their roles reshaped, and their value quietly questioned. The issue is poor reintegration. In fast-moving organizations, six to twelve months away can mean new leadership, new priorities, and new teams. Expecting women to simply ‘slot back in’ is unrealistic and damaging. They need intentional re-onboarding, clear role planning, visible support, and growth opportunities. Research consistently shows women aren’t leaving because they became mothers; they’re leaving because their organizations failed to support them.

Quotes:

“Businesses need to look at everything from an entire talent life cycle perspective and really understand where these bottlenecks are. If they're wanting to improve the attraction, then there needs to be fundamentals improved within the business.”
“One of my bugbears, I really feel that this responsibility is on the organization, not just on the individuals. So although for moms, I would say go for it. If you've got an opportunity and you feel you're ready to be able to dive back in, dive back in. And don't worry about what other people think.”
“It is the most difficult thing to advocate for yourself post maternity and to state what you need when you don't know yourself at that point what you need. So as an employer, it's your responsibility to be able to offer options.”
“I set up MotherBoard as an answer to a problem that wasn't being discussed, which is why are so many women leaving the tech industry by age 35? Statistically, it's around fifty percent, and that's a global problem.”