When a woman slows down after having children, society doesn’t pause with her; it rewrites her story. Past accomplishments fade from memory. Intelligence is re-evaluated downward. Competence is quietly questioned. And a woman once known for her sharp mind is recast as ‘simply’ a mum. Her newly acquired capabilities—logistical wizardry, crisis management, negotiation on no sleep—are dismissed as trivial or ‘soft’ skills.

But what if the real decline isn’t in women’s cognitive power or professional potential, but in society’s ability to remember her worth?

For many women, the temporary slowdown in paid work output after having children is both necessary and expected. Yet in highly competitive and hierarchical fields like academia, any pause is often interpreted as a red flag—not as a life phase, but a sign of diminished ongoing capacity and lesser intelligence. Maternity becomes conflated with perceptions and expectations of mediocrity.

This quiet erosion of status and recognition is what I call achievement amnesia. It’s not that women become less capable; it’s that others forget how capable they are and how often they had already signalled their intelligence, dedication, and long-term potential. And once downgraded to a lesser tier of intelligence and capabilities, they’re required to prove themselves all over again—usually not once, but for extended periods of time.

In professional spaces, intelligence is often treated as a performance art, measured through output, visibility, and presence. If you’re not publishing, presenting, and producing, are you still smart?

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