Alumni Stories

"It's not solely the woman's job to raise children"

Motherhood helped entrepreneur Christina Oster-Daum (SL 2012) embrace her authentic self and grow into a more nurturing leader. She explains why a mindset shift is needed in childcare to advance women's empowerment.
October 2024

When Christina Oster-Daum co-founded Cosnova, a cosmetics business, 20 years ago, her vision was to democratize beauty for everyone.

Under her stewardship, she transformed Cosnova into one of the largest cosmetics companies in Germany. In 2023, the company’s net sales hit €817m, a 32% jump from the previous year. The conglomerate currently employs around 900 employees around the world.

Despite her success, the mother of four admitted that balancing motherhood and leadership is no cakewalk. Even vacationing as a mother isn’t really a vacation.

“As an entrepreneur, it’s a big plus that I can go on more ‘holidays’ and spend time with our children. Having said that, my husband and I also have to work quite a bit when we’re on vacation,” she said.

In navigating motherhood and entrepreneurship, Oster-Daum saw the struggles of new parents who often juggle work with caregiving. Childcare challenges are often detrimental to women, who disproportionately take on childcare responsibilities. According to a recent KPMG report, the time women spend out of the workforce giving birth and raising children contributes not only to a gender pay gap but also a gender income gap.

“If the pressure for everything is always on you, you’ll end up tired,” she said. “And nobody is really a superhero in real life.”

Lessons in leadership from motherhood

Over the years, Oster-Daumn has witnessed the changing landscape of female leadership.

“When I was younger, I got to meet quite a number of female leaders, many of whom were inspiring figures. In retrospect, what’s interesting is that many of their behaviors and leadership styles were what you would typically associate with male leaders. It seemed like they were trying to prove that they were event tougher than the male leaders,” she said.

It led her to question if female leaders should adopt a different approach, one that emphasizes genuineness and has a softer side.

A key insight she took from IMD’s Strategies for Leadership program convinced her that the cultivation of authenticity is non-negotiable in leadership.

“Women shouldn’t believe that they have to act like men to be successful leaders – we bring so many other things to the table,” she said. “And it’s all right to show your emotions in the workplace. Maybe it’s not so bad after all if a woman starts crying in a meeting, and it’s not because she is weak,” she said.

She added that being in the safe space of an all-women’s program at IMD allowed her to “open up more easily” to discuss these issues on childcare support and women’s empowerment. “The magic happens when you really discuss the things that you might not want to discuss with just anyone, which is really very valuable,” she said.

Empowering women through childcare support

By embracing her maternal instinct and leading with heart, Oster-Daum was able to foster trust in the workplace and tap into her employees’ motivational drivers.

Currently, one of her top priorities is to help tackle the childcare crisis in her native Germany.

“Unlike France and countries in Scandinavia, where there are strong childcare networks as well as a tax system that supports having more children, in Germany, the system for childcare has led many women to feel like they have to bring down their expectations in terms of what they can achieve in their careers because of their caregiving responsibilities and expectations,” she said.

“In the past, many women in Germany had to leave their jobs to stay home for several years to take care of their kids. I’m not sure if that was an entirely good thing. With so much technological advancement taking place in the fast-paced world, staying home for such a long time can make anyone rusty.”

To support the work-life balance of new parents and alleviate their childcare burden, Oster-Daum said Cosnova subsidizes childcare costs for the company employees and provides them with extended paid leave options.

“In Germany, one parent can claim a parental allowance of 12 months which effectively allows them to stay at home to take care of their child while receiving a portion of their salary each month. On top of what the German government is doing, Cosnova is paying 80% of the remaining childcare costs for new parents during these 12 months. We also continue to subsidize the cost of childcare support for these employees event after they return to our company,” she said. “We don’t just provide parental benefits to our staff in Germany; we also do the same for our employees around the world including the US.

She explained: “Businesses should not only provide childcare support simply because they want to retain their employees. Personally, I don’t think that returning to the workforce at 100% just two months after the birth of your child is beneficial for the newborn or the parents. That’s why at Cosnova, we encourage our employees who are new parents, regardless of gender, to stay at home for some time to take care of their children and spend quality time with them.”

As a proponent of gender equality, Oster-Daum also believes that childcare should be split equally between men and women.

“This way, men can have their share of staying at home to take care of the kids instead of women having to take the full 12 months off. After all, it’s not solely the women’s job to raise children,” she said.

Nevertheless, she is heartened that childcare practices in Germany are changing among the younger generation of working parents. “The new cohort of parents are splitting caregiving duties more equally. I think this is great because it frees up the women to dedicate more time to their careers and empower themselves.”