Better Jobs Numbers for Women Is a Good Thing. There’s Just One Wrinkle.
New figures show the number of women with kids in paid work is at a record high. But unabashedly rejoicing misses half the picture.
Congratulations, mothers of America. Earlier this month official statistics showed that maternal labor force participation had not only topped pre-pandemic levels, but had also hit its highest level ever: Almost 72 percent of mothers across the U.S., with children under 18, are now in paid work.
In many ways, this is remarkable. In the early days of Covid-19, as daycare facilities and schools shut down, the proportion of mothers in the U.S. workforce tumbled by close to 16 percent, prompting news outlets to question whether the U.S. was returning to the 1950s. The picture was similarly dire in other countries around the world.
It didn’t end there. Some academics suggested that it would be difficult for those women who had dropped out of the workforce to re-enter it—that the pandemic would have “long-term implications for women’s employment,” exacerbating the gender pay gap and cementing age-old social norms. And yet, just over four years later, here we are. The share of employed mothers is about 1.9 percent higher now than it was in February 2020, before the world shut down.
Closing the gender labor force participation gap is an important precursor to closing other stubborn gender gaps like the authority gap and of, of course, the pay gap. It may also be a sign that workplaces are becoming more attuned to the specific needs of women; that bosses—whisper it!—are actually considering what their workers want and need in order to be able to do their jobs. Indeed, there’s evidence that remote and hybrid work arrangements can help mothers reach their professional potential while simultaneously raising kids, which is, of course, good for everyone (regardless of gender or parental status.)
But…unabashedly rejoicing means missing half the picture.
