Moms struggle to get back in U.S. workforce
Even as economy brightens, hurdles remain for women
Marianne Russo quit her job at Facebook last year when the pandemic closed her kids’ schools.
Now she’s vaccinated, schools are reopening and Russo, one of more than 1.4 million mothers who left the workforce during COVID-19, is struggling to break back in.
Even as the economy brightens with every jab in an arm, signs are emerging that resume gaps and ongoing child care responsibilities are still holding many women back. Mothers between the ages of 25 and 54 remain out of the workforce at higher rates than everyone else, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
And as more women do return to work, COVID has permanently changed career aspirations, with part-time work rising and some seeking different vocations entirely. Others aren’t sure they’ll return to work at all.
“This is a long-term setback,” said Sarah House, a Wells Fargo & Co. senior economist. “The financial trade-off between that paid and unpaid work is going to change.”
That’s exactly what worries Russo. After she updated her LinkedIn profile to note she’d left
Facebook, the usual flurry of messages from recruiters dried up. Most of the inquiries she’s gotten have been for lower-level roles.
“You have to think it’s that gap bias,” said Russo, 44, referring to her break in employment. “I’m a Black Latina with Apple and Facebook experience. You’d think I’d be the exact candidate you’d want to bring in.”
Nearly half a million women rejoined the U.S. workforce in March, marking an inflection point in the so-called women’s recession that is hindering economies globally. But there are still nearly 2 million fewer U.S. women in the labor force than before
COVID. And Black women in particular are falling behind other groups in job gains.
Policymakers are keen to help women stage a comeback. A promising start: President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which includes support for schools and parents, and his more recent proposal for upgrading child care centers.
Women with children face considerable challenges as they navigate a return, in part because they are frequently considered less productive or committed, said Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code and advocacy group Marshall Plan for Moms. That’s only worsened because
of work-from-home arrangements, she said.
“We haven’t been able to hide our children,” Saujani said. “I just don’t believe that an employer’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to hire a mom.’”
Some corporations often screen automatically for employment gaps during the hiring process — which may help explain Russo’s situation.
And employers have more discretion when there’s a huge pool of unemployed workers, according to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
The pandemic — and its associated child care crisis — has also permanently changed how some women view their careers entirely. Women are more likely than men to say they want to work from home all the time, according to research from the Pew Research Center. The number of people working part time for noneconomic reasons, which includes child care, rose in March by more than 700,000.
“You can’t just assume that everything’s going to go back to normal,” said Maggie Nelson, a 37-year-old Ohio prekindergarten teacher who is switching to a part-time role at a different school after taking unpaid leave to look after her two daughters. “We still don’t know what’s going to happen with school and child care.”
Another factor holding parents back: Young children likely won’t be eligible for vaccines until at least next year. Extra parental support may also be needed as kids return to in-person learning, experts say.
Alison Wieties, 37, would like to eventually apply to jobs at a local school so her hours will match her kids’ schedules. She previously worked at a pharmacy before quitting to homeschool her four boys. But she’s not planning to even start her job hunt until her children are back in school this fall and well-adjusted.
“I’m terrified about my son going to first grade in person; he never went to in-person preschool or kindergarten,” said Wieties, who lives with her family in Illinois. “That’s a reason to wait on the job search.”