What does it mean to thrive as a Black working mother in Philly? Balance, security and setting an example

The West Oak Lane area native has two young children to care for, on top of an already packed schedule. When Peden had her first child in 2020, she worked at a daycare and brought her son with her to work. She was also a dance instructor in the evenings and on weekends, and used to bring him with her there, too.

Peden stopped working at the daycare after having her daughter last summer, but has continued to teach dance. This summer, Peden is reentering the education space through a teaching fellowship where she will work toward a certification in elementary education.

“The hardest part is money. I think I had accepted a while back that working in childcare, I wasn’t going to be a millionaire,” she told Technical.ly. “There wasn’t that expectation there, but when I had kids, I had my own children, I started to realize financially, the burden.”

Thriving in Philadelphia

More than 61,000 Black working mothers between the ages 20 and 34 live in Philadelphia, according to a Technical.ly analysis of the most recent IPUMS data. Around half of them head households that earn less than $35,000 per year, a similar share to Baltimore and Chicago, as they face systemic obstacles and a persistent national wealth gap between Black and white households. Two-thirds of Black working mothers in Pittsburgh are below that threshold — contributing to that city’s troubling reputation for failing Black women — but in dynamic cities like Austin, Boston and Los Angeles the share is lower.

Still, these numbers don’t define the moms of Philadelphia as they take on the most important job of all: raising their kids.

Peden is not unique in the way her schedule is packed to fit in work, childcare and housework. In this part of the yearlong Thriving series, Technical.ly interviewed five Black working mothers who live in the city, all of whom discussed their busy schedules balancing work and motherhood, as did the moms we spoke to DC.

They also discussed themes related to generational wealth and wanting to leave something behind for their children and future generations. Here are their experiences.

Shaynise Hill, 26: ‘I’m big on leaving something behind for my son’

Shaynise Hill, 26, dreams of being a successful businesswoman. When the pandemic started, Hill taught herself how to do nail art and manicures as a way to make extra income for her and her now-6-year-old son.

“Nails really became something that, one, I could do and get my nails done without having to pay, and then two it was my outlet because I was really in a dark place at that time. So I remember just having my nail room, it’s like my relief,” she said.

When Hill realized she wanted to take her nail business further, she got certified to do it professionally and is currently running her business out of her home in Roxborough. This fall, Hill will be starting a semester in cosmetology school. One of her biggest goals is to eventually open a storefront.

“I’m also big on leaving something behind for my son,” she said. “He may not want to do nails, but to say that he has an investment in the nail business stands for itself. So, I would definitely say that’s my goal, too.”

Shaynise Hill. (Courtesy photo)

Hill, a Philly native, had her son when she was 20. She dropped out of college twice, the second time because it was difficult balancing school, motherhood and working.

At the time she was studying business management, and would still like to finish her degree. Expanding her small business would combine her passions for business and nails. And nowadays, it would be easier to balance school with the rest of her life because she has more help with her son and is more financially stable.

As Hill works toward this goal, she has been working as a telesales agent for Comcast for the last year. She found the job through career services organization CareerLink. It’s important to her to have a backup plan for her and her son, and she feels stable — like she could create a long-term career in her current position, if her own business doesn’t grow the way she wants it to.

When she first had her son, Hill was on welfare. She remembers saying to herself that she was not going to stay on government assistance forever. Now, she said, she makes enough money that she doesn’t qualify for as much assistance, but it is still difficult to make ends meet.

To her, economically thriving would mean creating something that will take care of her for the rest of her life but also help her child and future generations.

“I definitely see myself creating some kind of wealth for me and my son. I don’t want to be just working. I do want to be in a career path,” she said. “And I do want to be somewhere I can call home and I can build, but I also want my business to build.”

Betania Shephard, 36: ‘Our work is incredibly necessary’

Betania Shephard, 36, is passionate about speaking up for domestic workers rights and making sure domestic workers are compensated fairly.

Shepherd, who now lives in Lawncrest, is originally from the Dominican Republic, and lived in Maryland when she first arrived in the United States. She said she moved to Philadelphia 13 years ago to escape domestic violence when her son was a baby.

When she first came to Philly, she found it difficult to balance work and childcare, and did not qualify for government assistance because of her immigration status. She recalls constantly balancing dropping them off, running to work and needing to ask other people to take them where they needed to go. She was always working three or four jobs at a time to make ends meet.

She’s sad to think she missed a lot of their milestones because she was so often working. Now, her children are a little older — 14 and 11 — and they’re generally more independent, but she still misses them while she works.

“You have to enjoy your children when [they’re young] because you’re gonna end up missing them,” she told Technical.ly through a translator.

Betania Shephard. (Courtesy photo)

Shephard has been doing domestic work for seven years, and in 2020, she was involved in the National Domestic Workers Alliance-led movement to get the Philadelphia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights passed. Some domestic workers receive very little pay, and face discrimination from employers based on immigration status. But the bill still isn’t enforced the way it should be, she said.

“I would like in the future for us to be able to speak with all employers about whatever situation we have without fearing of losing our jobs,” she said. “We’re always fearful of losing our jobs. We’re always fearful of losing connections. If you know your rights, you lose. If you defend your rights, you lose. I would like to defend and claim my rights without retaliation.”

Shepherd doesn’t want to change her career. She likes her job and the flexibility it offers so she can spend more time with her children. What needs to change is the quality of conditions for domestic workers, she said.

“If people really understood how important it is to be an essential worker and a domestic worker …” she said. “We can realistically stop a hospital from functioning, we can stop a lot of things from functioning, if we don’t do our work. Our work is incredibly necessary and people are ignorant.”

Looking toward the future, Shepherd said she wants to own a house, send her children to college and live in a safe and supportive community.

Celeana Robertson, 30: ‘I just want financial freedom’

Celeana Robertson, 30, wants to be in a job that isn’t stressful and is steady, with her number one goal being able to provide for her 9-year-old son and her mother. She also wants to own a house someday.

Robertson was born in Philly but grew up and attended college in Virginia, where she studied mass communication and music technology. She had planned to move back to the city after graduating, but pregnancy accelerated only part of that plan. After leaving her program to return to Philly and care for her newborn, she tried to continue her degree courses at Temple University, but ultimately, going to school, working, and being a mother was a lot to take on, she said. She sacrificed finishing her bachelor’s to focus on motherhood.

Robertson, who lives in Grays Ferry, currently works in security at the University of Pennsylvania. Before that, she had a variety of jobs.

Celeana Robertson. (Courtesy photo)

During the pandemic, Robertson went back to school to get a medical assistant certification. She worked at a family doctor’s office for two years and loved it, but was only making $12 an hour — not enough to support her and her child.  She left that job to work for Amazon in a warehouse and as a driver, but six months ago, she returned to working security.

“I just want financial freedom. I want financial freedom and I don’t want to have to worry about, ‘Hey, well, next week when I get paid, that’s when I’ll have the bills for you,’” she said. “If an emergency happened, I want to be able to tap into my account and take care of what I need to do.”

Robertson has looked to services such as financial education organization CareerLink, Clarifi, Women’s Way and Philabundance for help.

“Not having enough money is a burden to complete your goal, even if it is saving, even if it is taking your mom and your son out for a nice restaurant dinner.”Celeana Robertson

“I’ll Google ‘utility help’ or ‘help with budgeting’ and stuff like that, and things like that come up in Philadelphia,” she said. “It comes up, it’s free, but people don’t take the time out and take that and assess. [There’s] other help that’s available for us. We just have to tap in.”

Robertson and her own mother both work. Her mom makes enough money that as a household, they don’t qualify for certain benefits, but not enough to cover bills the way benefits did.

“Money is a burden. Not having enough money is a burden to complete your goal, even if it is saving, even if it is taking your mom and your son out for a nice restaurant dinner,” she said. “Things pop up and it hinders us from doing what we need to do and it gets really stressful.”

Her role as a mother keeps her balanced and on top of her life. But she gets frustrated when her son complains that she’s always at work, or asks to do certain activities they can’t afford because she had to pay a bill.

Robertson doesn’t want to pass down financial troubles to her son. She wants him to get a good education and not worry about money.

“When he asks me certain things, and I can’t do it, it does hurt. It hurts, but I do very well with communicating with him — but it still hurts,” she said. “So I just don’t want to have to go through that with my son. I want my son to be successful for himself and be independent for himself.”

Mahalia Sealy, 29: ‘Just trying to pave a path’

Mahalia Sealy, 29, is constantly surrounded by motherhood. As a training coordinator for the doula and lactation program at the Maternity Care Coalition (MCC), Sealy is happy to be in a position to empower and educate so many women and support them.

Her interest in birth work comes from shadowing a midwife in South Carolina, where she previously lived for two years. This person told her about the birth workers field in Philly and she eventually connected with MCC. The 40-year-old nonprofit provides health and wellness services to new parents and their children, especially those in areas with high rates of poverty, infant and maternal mortality, and general health disparities.

Sealy has three children of her own, along with working her 9-to-5 job. Luckily, her job is virtual and allows her to work from home most of the time. She moved to Philly in 2015 from Brooklyn because the cost of living is cheaper.

Mahalia Sealy. (Courtesy photo)

Before work turned remote during the pandemic, Sealy was already working online so she could spend more time with her kids. Prior to that, she was teaching English online for kids and adults. One perk of her job with MCC was that it was remote, which supports her desire to homeschool her kids.

“Knowing that I could be hybrid, that was another great thing about this position because I’m like, if we go back to full-time in-person, I don’t know how I’m going to manage,” she said.

To balance work and motherhood, Sealy said she logs off at 5 p.m. sharp so she can focus on her kids and other household responsibilities.

Being a mom makes Sealy more mindful of what she’s doing with her career to positively impact her kids in the future. Short term, she wants to move into a leadership position at MCC. Long term, she said, she would like to start her own business so she can have even more flexibility with her schedule.

“Just thinking of the future, too, for my children and their children in the future, just trying to pave a path where for them, it’ll be more attainable to achieve their goals and dreams,” she said. “I want to be able to be in a position financially, where if we need something or want something, it’s not gonna be an issue, right?”

Dominique Peden, 33: ‘I want them to be left with a legacy and an example’

Peden has always had to maintain two or three jobs to make ends meet, whether that be teaching dance at the rec center or working as a reading curriculum trainer with the national Children’s Defense Fund in the summer. She said she never made more than $16 per hour working in childcare, even after a decade of experience and a degree in media communications and technology.

At one point, Peden was enrolled in La Salle University to pursue a masters in special education, but she ended up not being able to afford classes and had to drop out.

Peden does think race has played a role in the way her career has progressed. Going back as far as college, she noticed some white students at the school — a PWI, or predominantly white institution — had a leg up because they’d had access to resources in high school that taught them how to use media tools. Those students had more experience and thus were more marketable for jobs after graduation.

Dominique Peden. (Courtesy photo)

At one of her childcare jobs, Peden said, her boss was the only employee with a masters degree. Peden sought reimbursement to pay for grad school, yet she felt like her boss was unsupportive because then, they would’ve been the only two with graduate degrees, and Peden is Black.

Having children made Peden want to be better and do more if she could. She said she is excited to start her teaching fellowship because she’s looking for something more sustainable than teaching dance or other childcare and education jobs she’s had.

“When it was just me, I was OK with it. I can make ends meet and still enjoy my life,” she said. “But when it’s them and me, I did feel a sense of pressure, especially when I had my son in 2020.”

To Peden, economically thriving means generational wealth. She hopes she can create generational wealth to help out her own children in their futures. She would love to leave a house, property or a trust fund to help her kids. She doesn’t want her kids to have to worry about money.

“I don’t want them to see us struggling because I couldn’t make the right decisions or because I picked the wrong career path and now I’m upset about where I’m going,” she said. “I want them to see me economically thriving. I want them to be left with a legacy and an example.”

This report is part of Thriving, a yearlong storytelling initiative from Technical.ly focused on the lived experiences of Philadelphia and comparative city residents. The goal is to generate insights about the economic opportunities and obstacles along their journeys to financial security. Here's who we're focusing on and why.