#109: Turning Anger Into Action With Joeli Brearley
From Women's Business by Nicky Denson-Elliott
March 23, 2026 · 1h 18m · Season 1 · Episode 109
About this episode
Joeli Brearley discusses her journey from personal trauma to activism, focusing on workplace rights for parents and caregivers.
My guest this week us Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed and we get into it all here. After Joeli's early career we dive into how being dropped from a contract after disclosing her pregnancy -followed by a high-risk pregnancy -radicalised her and led her to launch an anonymous storytelling blog on International Women’s Day 2015. Joeli describes how the project grew into an advice line, tribunal mentoring, and sustained campaigning that helped change laws and influence policy, including extending the employment tribunal time limit, redundancy protections, flexible working, and contributions to childcare investment, while noting change is slow and often unglamorous. She discusses internalised misogyny, workplace culture failing caregivers, burnout from carrying others’ trauma (especially during COVID), and her difficult decision to leave the charity after 10 years at the helm. Jolie shares her new venture Growth Spurt supporting parents returning to work, her podcast To Be A Boy about raising sons amid online harms like pornography, and practical advice for overwhelmed would-be activists to start small and build community. Honestly, this is one of my favourite…
People in this episode
Host: Nicky Denson-Elliott
Guest: Joeli Brearley
Topics covered
- activism
- parenting
- workplace culture
- women's rights
- mental health
- career transition
Keywords
- activism
- workplace rights
- parenting
- mental health
- women's rights
- career transition
- storytelling
- community building
Sponsors
Explore Worldwide
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Pregnant Then Screwed
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