A new study from the Brookings Institution confirms what women across the country already know: mothers of young children experienced unprecedented demands on their time during the pandemic.
Working moms with children under 12, in particular, were forced to manage a work-life balance upended by school closures. In 2020, they spent 7.3 hours a weekday on direct or secondary childcare and another six hours on their jobs. Employed fathers with children under 12 worked longer, but spent just 4.8 hours each weekday on childcare.
From Brookings:
The burden of school closures not only made working outside of the home more challenging for mothers, it added education, facilitation, and caregiving-related time pressures to every day. Before the pandemic, caregiving responsibilities fell disproportionately on women and on mothers. That has continued during the pandemic.
Brookings reports that “The COVID-19 pandemic and recession has disrupted decades of progress for women in their labor market outcomes and potentially their career trajectories for years to come.” Indeed, since the start of the pandemic, mothers of young children are more likely to be unemployed, more likely to be working reduced hours, and more likely to have dropped out of the labor force altogether.
Brookings asserts that helping working moms is “an urgent matter of public concern and threatens long-term productivity and potential GDP growth.” The think tank suggests several steps to help, including: containing the COVID-19 pandemic, speeding a successful roll-out of vaccines to children, and ensuring that all schools, preschools, and child care facilities have the resources and guidance to open and reopen safely.
