SIHLE HLOPHE: Challenging stereotypes about working mothers

Mail & Guardian

09-05-2025

'Children are a contribution, not a disruption': Sihle Hlophe.
In an economy driven by deadlines and bottom lines, it's easy to overlook the invisible labour of motherhood. Yet for women like Sihle Hlophe, a filmmaker, mother, and storyteller, the definitions of value and productivity are being rewritten.
Sihle is shaping the cultural landscape with her art and reframing traditional economic narratives that have undervalued the contributions of mothers.
'We've been told that doing what is natural to me as a woman, will affect my bank account. It's almost framed in a negative way in a capitalistic society — something that will be an inconvenience and affect productivity.'
For her, identity is layered, and motherhood doesn't need to impede career ambition. 'Having a child is not a disruption,' Sihle adds. 'It's a contribution.'
'My mom was a teacher. She taught me how to read from a young age before I went to school, and also, she really nurtured my imagination,' she recalls. 'She encouraged me to see the magic in small things. She'd say, 'Look at these Rice Krispies: snap, crackle and pop. They're going to pop out of here!''
That influence now fuels a career spent exploring the human experience on screen. 'It's my inner child that comes out to play when I'm creating.'
As an independent filmmaker, Sihle contributes to a creative industry that is both culturally vital and economically significant. According to the National Film and Video Foundation, South Africa's film industry is projected to generate R5.2 billion by 2025, and it supports thousands of jobs.
But that economic contribution isn't limited to measurable outputs like box office numbers. It includes the less visible, unquantified emotional labour, caregiving, and community-building that mothers like Sihle navigate daily.
'When it comes to telling stories, obviously I am fascinated with the human condition and with what motivates us to do the things we do as human beings,' she says.
Still, breaking through entrenched norms is no easy feat.
'Women are bombarded with all these negative messages that either we don't know how to create wealth … or that we won't be able to be mothers and be happy and be creative and productive and do all the things we want to do,' she reflects.
That narrative serves an economic system that rarely accommodates, let alone celebrates, motherhood. But by living a different reality, Sihle offers a counter-narrative: that creativity, motherhood, and economic contribution can coexist — not in spite of each other, but because of each other.
It's no coincidence that she agreed to this feature after seeing another woman directing while eight months pregnant. That image — a woman commanding a set while carrying life inside her — wasn't just symbolic. It was economic subversion.
'It speaks to the fact that giving birth doesn't have to affect my bank account,' Sihle says, 'That belief takes away from the beauty of the divine feminine and the magic of creating life.'
In reclaiming that magic, Sihle and others like her are also reclaiming value: cultural, personal, and financial. So when she appears in front of the camera, often more comfortable behind it, it's not just for the shot. It's a statement. That she belongs. That mothers belong.