Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg calls for better paid maternity leave for single mothers on Mother's Day

The 'Lean In' author has been a single mother since the unexpected death of her husband in 2015

In 2012 Sheryl Sandberg became the first woman on the board of Facebook, four years after joining the company (Getty)

Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, shared a heartfelt message honouring US single mothers ahead of Mother’s Day - and called for better workplace policies that support single parents nationwide.

Ms Sandberg, who penned the bestselling book Lean In, shared her experience of single motherhood since the death of her husband, SurveyMonkey CEO David Goldberg, in May 2015. Mr Goldberg died in a sudden accident while vacationing in Mexico.

“Dave’s absence is part of our daily lives and, for me, has redefined what it is to be a mother,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “Before Dave died, I had a partner who shared both the joys and responsibilities of parenting. Then, without any warning, I was on my own.”

One point in her book, which was about women reaching their own professional ambitions, Ms Sandberg focuses on the importance of having a supportive partner to reach those goals - specifically how her late husband helped in caring for their two children.

The book, as well as the Lean In initiative Ms Sandberg runs, had been criticised for not taking the lives of low-income women, or those without supportive partners.

“Before, I did not quite get it,” she said. “I did not really get how hard it is to succeed at work when you are overwhelmed at home. … Some people felt that I did not spend enough time writing about the difficulties women face when they have an unsupportive partner or no partner at all.

“They were right. I will never experience and understand all of the challenges most single moms face, but I understand a lot more than I did a year ago.”

Ms Sandberg explained the plight that single mothers in the US face - that 84 per cent of single-parent households are led by a woman, and 40 percent of single mothers live in poverty. Forty-six per cent of single-parent families led by a woman of color are low-income.

“The odds are stacked against single mothers in this country,” she said, and called for the US government to provide better paid maternity leave for single mothers. Ms Sandberg added that public and corporate workforce policies need to be rethought.

“[I]takes a community to raise children and that so many of our single mothers need and deserve a much more supportive community than we give them,” she wrote. “And let’s vow to do more to support them, every day."