In 2015, following her own experience of pregnancy discrimination, she started the charity and campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed from her kitchen table. Under her leadership, the charity changed multiple laws, supported over 100,000 mothers with free advice about their rights, and built an active community of half a million working mothers. In 2021, she took the UK Government to court for indirect sex discrimination and won. Joeli also organised March of the Mummies, the largest protest of working parents in British history, bringing 15,000 parents onto the streets across ten UK cities. The Chancellor subsequently said the protest was instrumental in securing £5.2 billion of investment in childcare. 

Joeli was awarded an MBE for services to working families in the 2025 New Year Honours. She was named one of British Vogue’s 25 Most Influential Women in 2024 and was ranked PR Week’s 8th most prominent British communicator. She has advised the Quebec Government and the Office of the US President and served on the Government’s Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination Advisory Board. In 2021, Simon & Schuster published her debut book, Pregnant Then Screwed: The Truth About the Motherhood Penalty. 

She is now the founder and CEO of Growth Spurt, an online programme supporting working parents and their line managers through pregnancy, parental leave, returning to work and reproductive health challenges. Growth Spurt helps organisations improve wellbeing, confidence and retention, while giving managers the skills and knowledge to support their people through major life transitions. 

Joeli speaks on the motherhood penalty, building workplaces that retain mothers, and how to run campaigns that create genuine, lasting change.