The Return to the Office Is Pushing Even More Women Out of Work
Companies are asking people back, but there’s less child care than ever. Moms are paying the price.
While Angelica Marie Acosta Torres’s employer, a Seattle-area law firm, is still allowing remote work, she’s already anxious about the inevitable call back into the office.
Photographer: Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg
The pandemic took a toll on the careers of many working mothers. A rush back to the office is shaping up to be just as damaging.
The lack of child care and in-person schooling that has pushed millions of women out of the workforce in the U.S. since March 2020 has only gotten worse. Though businesses including Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. responded with backup day care and emergency leave, much of that was temporary and is coming to an end. The $53 billion in federal rescue funds to keep day-care centers running and to reopen shuttered care was a stopgap.