Recent data shows that new mothers in the United States are returning to work at a surprisingly high rate, effectively avoiding the predicted “she-cession” post-pandemic. According to insights from the American Community Survey, 66.6% of women who gave birth within the past year were part of the workforce in 2022, surpassing the percentages from 2021 (66.5%) and 2010 (61.6%). It is common for motherhood to temporarily disrupt women’s careers and contribute to the gender pay gap. However, factors such as rising inflation and the availability of flexible and remote job opportunities in the aftermath of the pandemic have prompted new moms to rejoin the workforce sooner than expected.
“The pandemic had a silver lining in creating awareness about the intersection of caregiving and careers,” stated Christine Winston from Path Forward, an organization that assists women in returning to work, in an interview with NPR. She believes that the increased workplace flexibility has enabled the activation of previously untapped talent pools. “Many employers became aware of this enormous talent reserve on the sidelines.” The pandemic disproportionately impacted women’s careers compared to men, as reported by the Financial Times. In 2020, a larger percentage of women lost or left their jobs, resulting in an estimated 2 million women exiting the workforce. However, recent months have seen a significant increase in the number of working mothers, with 75% in July. This marks the highest representation of mothers in the workforce since the Labor Department began tracking data in 1948.
Nevertheless, not all mothers are returning to work by choice. Misty Heggeness, a professor at the University of Kansas, highlights that mothers are reentering the labor force at a faster rate than women without children due to the economic needs of their families. In today’s economy, being a single-income household is increasingly considered a luxury reserved for the ultra-rich. However, when women do return to work, the gender pay gap widens. Working mothers in the US earn an average of 62 cents for every dollar earned by working fathers, while women in general earn around 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. On a positive note, daughters of working mothers tend to have higher salaries.
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