Stretched Too Thin: Working Moms are Breaking Down

By Nandita Dalal, Vice President, Lincoln Financial Group

Moms everywhere are balancing work with caring for their kids or aging parents at home. And for many, it’s become too heavy a load to carry.

We’ve heard the stories. Working moms are helping their kids with remote learning while they fall behind on their own work. Or there’s the young mom who lost her restaurant job after it switched to carry-out only, and now can’t find work that allows her to be with her kids during the day. Or another mom who quit working because she couldn’t find reliable child care after her day care center closed.

The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic differs from past crises — it disproportionately affects women.

Where are we now

While both men and women are currently struggling to balance caregiving with work responsibilities, women are carrying most of the burden. When both parents work full time, women still handle over 50% of caregiving and education responsibilities.¹ Add in the additional caregiving needs brought on by pandemic closures, and that’s a lot to ask of working moms.

When schools switched to remote learning and day care centers closed, some never to reopen, families had to face a new reality. They could no longer count on the institutions that helped working parents thrive. A lack of child care is the reason one out of four women says they became unemployed during the pandemic — twice the rate of men.²

With working moms already balancing roles of caretaker and teacher, keeping their role as an employee becomes too much to juggle. Some found they couldn’t fit in work with their other responsibilities and their only option for time off was under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides job protection but not pay.

Some working parents also had access to paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) that offered up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a child whose school or child care provider closed.³ However, the school and child care closures in most states extended beyond 12 weeks, leaving parents with few options once their leave ran out. This struggle caused many moms to leave the workforce to focus on their family’s needs.

While some chose to leave, others saw their jobs eliminated. When the service industry took its biggest hit at the start of the pandemic, women predominately held the jobs lost in hospitality, travel, retail and entertainment.⁴

The number of women leaving or losing their jobs is serious and could have lasting consequences. As of December, there are 2.1 million fewer women in the workforce than before the pandemic.⁴

Long-term effects

Whether working moms leave the workforce by choice or circumstances, their families feel the effects. They have less money to pay for necessities such as rent, food and clothes. They’re also less likely to spend money at restaurants and on entertainment, which affects industries already struggling.

Employers could lose trusted, long-time employees who can’t find or afford child care. And they’ll have a harder time finding the right person for a job from a smaller talent pool. Women may find it’s harder to re-enter the workforce after extended time-off.

And with increasing unemployment benefits and less tax revenue, federal and state governments will feel the strain as well.

It’s clear this situation could cause a ripple effect for nearly every facet of American life.

The benefits of women in the workforce

Women returning and staying in the workplace is a win-win situation. Women will bring home reliable income, which can help provide more financial flexibility for their family. And studies show higher job satisfaction and employee engagement, improved company image, increased retention and less burnout when there is more gender diversity in the workplace.⁶

Employers also benefit when women hold leadership roles. Businesses with women in senior-level management have higher talent retention, a better understanding of customers and higher profitability.⁷

So what will it take to get more women back into the workforce?

Helping women reenter the workforce

There’s a growing focus on employers to help support employees’ work-life balance. FMLA provides job protection, but because it’s an unpaid benefit, it doesn’t cover all needs. As more companies offer paid leave programs, we see an increase in support for working parents — from paid parental leave to COVID-specific leaves that help cover such things as child care needs. But that’s just the start.

Employers should look to their benefits programs to provide for the ongoing needs of their employees. For instance, maternity leave and short-term disability provide time off while bonding and recovering with a newborn, but what about the caregiving and responsibilities that come after? Moms often squeeze in doctor, dentist and school appointments between meetings. Not to mention taking care of sick kids.

Working moms, and those wanting to return to work, will look for employers that offer better caregiver benefits for all stages of life, such as comprehensive emergency leave, paid leave that covers multiple reasons, paid sick days, flexible scheduling and strong resources that can help in times of need, such as a valuable Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

Offering a well-rounded set of programs and benefits will help not only women, but all working parents, better prioritize their work and caregiving responsibilities — which could lead to better productivity and a happier workforce.⁶

Disclosure: Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation and its affiliates. Affiliates are separately responsible for their own financial and contractual obligations.
LCN-3488911-031121
¹ Place, Alyssa. 2021. “Benefit program offers virtual child care for parents in a bind.” Benefitnews.com. January 11. https://www.benefitnews.com/news/benefit-program-offers-virtual-child-care-for-parents-in-a-bind.
²Sasser Modestino, Alicia. 2020. “Coronavirus child-care crisis will set women back a generation.” The Washington Post. July 29. https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/07/29/childcare-remote-learning-women-employment/.
³Goldman, Tanya. 2020. ”The FFCRA and Paid Leave to Care for a Child.” The Center for Law and Social Policy. October 5. https://www.clasp.org/publications/fact-sheet/ffcra-and-paid-leave-care-child
⁴ Gupta, Alisha Haridasani. 2021. “Will Biden’s Stimulus Package Help Reverse the ‘Shecession’? .” The New York Times. January 18. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/18/us/biden-stimulus-package-shecession.html.
⁵Connley, Courtney. 2021. “A year ago, women outnumbered men in the U.S. workforce, now they account for 100% of jobs lost in December.” CNBC.com. January 11. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/11/women-account-for-100percent-of-jobs-lost-in-december-new-analysis.html.
⁶Ciccarelli, Maura C. 2019. “Why more women in the workforce is a win-win for employers.” Human Resource Executive. September 26. https://hrexecutive.com/why-more-women-in-the-workforce-is-a-win-win-for-employers/.
⁷Katz, Sara. 2019. “5 Ways Hiring More Women in Senior Leadership Will Postively Impact Your Bottom Line.” HR Technologist. September 16. https://www.hrtechnologist.com/articles/diversity/5-ways-hiring-more-women-in-senior-leadership-will-positively-impact-your-bottom-line/.