As women return to jobs, remote work could lock in gains

The pandemic “shecession” is fading as more women return to jobs across the country, aided by new workplace flexibility that could lock in future increases in female employment.

Remote work, a loosening of 9-5 workday constraints and evolving ideas such as “returnships” to help women back to careers after extended absences all could make it easier for women, especially those with children, to hold jobs.

Women’s employment gains have outpaced men’s for six of the past eight months, according to a Stateline analysis of federal statistics through March of this year. The data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey provided by the University of Minnesota.

The number of women with jobs is higher now than at any other point since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, though it is still below pre-pandemic levels. During the early months of the pandemic, women lost 1.7 million more jobs than men.

Women already have caught up to their pre-pandemic employment levels in New England and on the West Coast, where there is a high proportion of white-collar jobs in the knowledge economy and in tech that can be performed remotely. The ability to work from home is especially welcome to women raising families or caring for older relatives.

Women’s employment lags the most in the Midwest, where there are many manufacturing jobs that can’t be done remotely. In that region, women hold almost 800,000 fewer jobs than before the pandemic, according to the Stateline analysis. Meanwhile, in the West Coast region (which includes Alaska and Hawaii), there are more than 400,000 more women working as of this March compared with February 2020.

However, mothers of small children still lag fathers in returning to the workplace nationwide, according to the Stateline analysis.

There are about 250,000 fewer mothers of small children at work than before the pandemic, compared with about 190,000 fewer fathers. More than 90% of fathers of small children are employed, a complete recovery to the pre-pandemic share. Mothers, though, still lag their own pre-pandemic employment rate by almost 2 points, at 68.6%.

Debra Lancaster, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said state governments “can and should be setting an example for the private sector” in providing flexibility for their employees.

More than 1 in 5 New Jersey households faced disruptions to their child care last year, forcing parents to either supervise children while working or leave their jobs, according to an April report co-written by Lancaster. But New Jersey’s new telework policy for state employees, announced in April by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, still requires parents to use paid or unpaid leave time if they have to supervise children during scheduled remote working hours.

In Hawaii, lawmakers are considering a plan to subsidize day care salaries to combat a shortage of workers, said Khara JabolaCarolus, executive director of the state’s Commission on the Status of Women. Nationwide, there are 150,000 fewer day care workers than before the pandemic, according to the Stateline analysis.

Another Hawaii bill last year was aimed at the state government’s prohibition on employees using their child care responsibilities to justify working remotely, Jabola-Carolus said. The bill has been held up because of criticism from the state employees’ union, which insists that legislation that changes working conditions should be part of labor negotiations.