To celebrate Women's History Month, we'll be publishing inspirational, female-focused content throughout the month of March. Enjoy!

I went to a women's conference a few months ago in which one of the breakout speakers talked about time management and work/life balance. She made some great points, basically claiming that we, as a culture (and as women, I suppose), tend to overindulge when we describe our work weeks. There will always be 168 hours in a week. It just depends on how you use them. "No one spends an entire hour cleaning their kitchen every night," she said to a crowd of nodding, chuckling women.

"I do," I thought. "And I can prove it."

Let me explain…

I'm the mother of four children under the age of three. That's right-I have a preschooler and toddler triplets. All girls. And though they're cherubs on the outside, they eat with the veracity of grown men, dropping crumbs to the floor with every bite. So at the end of the day-after a full day at the office, orchestrating dinner, facilitating bath time, engaging in play time and snacks, and braving the screams to enforce tooth brushing-I get to clean a filthy kitchen from top to bottom. And it does take an hour.

People often ask me when I get free time. I always answer "at work." Being able to work is a gift. Sure, it's hard sometimes. But I get to eat lunch in peace, exercise my brain, converse with other adults, and go to the bathroom whenever I want. Don't get me wrong-I love playing games, going to library time, and sneaking fruit snacks from my kids' plates. But I find balance in knowing I can be "silly mommy" and "internal communications manager" in the same week.

People always assume that I don't work because of the number of children I have. I always feel lucky to correct them. It disappoints me when I see women who think they don't have the option to be a mom and work. Sure, there are a lot of factors to consider-financial ability, special needs, available childcare, etc. But consider this-in actuality, 41% of women are primary breadwinners. Twenty-three percent are co-breadwinners.* Women are making up a big chunk of the household income. So why are they the ones who are expected to stay home?

Let's get one thing straight: there's nothing wrong with wanting to be a stay-at-home mom-my own mother did it. But all too often, I see friends and women around me who choose to stay at home because they think they have to. "I won't be able to make it work." "My husband wants me to stay home." "My child will suffer because I'm gone." Not true. Children benefit from interaction with other kids and adults. They learn new things that maybe you can't teach them. They learn about a world bigger than the walls of your home.

Why stay in the workforce? Because we have a lot of work to do:

• Only 21 of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.*
• Women hold only 14% of executive officer positions.*
• In 1970, women were paid $0.59 for every dollar men made. It's now $0.77.*

Just over a year ago, three ExactTarget women came together to start creating women's programming. Today, the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud Women's Inspiration Network (ExactWIN) brings all employees together for women's advocacy and leadership. A subset of the group, MomsWIN exists to support working moms in the company. As a co-lead of the group, I get to support working moms in programming that makes them feel appreciated and valued. I'm proud to work at a company that values women and parents. They understand that we're human and not everyone can adhere to a perfect 9:00-5:00 schedule.

People ask my husband and me all the time how we make it work. And while childcare is a big part of it, it's only one piece of the machine. We will it to work. We work hard at work. We play hard at home. And by God, we stick to routines. Any woman who's a mom and an employee knows that office hours are working hours-and there's no lollygagging around.

What's work/life balance? It's what you make of it. Whether you're a triplet mom, a bachelor, a pet owner, a volunteer, or a couch potato, you have 168 hours in a week-how will you use them? Take a tip from working moms: squeeze everything out of them you can.

Curious about life with triplets? Check out my personal blog, Four Little Jansens.