From today’s New York Times:
Mothers of young children surged into the work force during the Covid-19 pandemic, propelled by a tight labor market, federal child care subsidies and the sudden abundance of remote jobs.
Years later, they are still on the job. The share of women with children under 5 who are working or looking for work peaked at nearly 71 percent in September 2023 and continues to float above prepandemic levels, according to an analysis of government data from the Hamilton Project, an economic policy research group at the Brookings Institution.
The growth is partly because more employers have flexible office policies, an enduring legacy of the pandemic era. More jobs are at least partly remote, so parents — especially mothers who often shoulder most of their families’ child care duties — can better balance their responsibilities as employees and caregivers. This is particularly true for highly educated women in white-collar jobs.
Read the complete story here.