Women aren’t opting out of returning to work. They just lack the choice

This is Working Together, a weekly series on equity in the workplace. Have ideas about what we should discuss next week? Let me know in the comments using #WorkingTogether or email me at [email protected]. 

As companies start to hire again and offices begin to reopen, who is walking through the doors? For many women — particularly women of color — starting a new opportunity or returning to the workplace is not an option right now. 

Women continue to lose out on positions amid April’s unanticipated hiring slowdown. There are 1.5 million fewer working mothers in the workforce today than at this time last year, and for every woman who has entered the workforce in April, roughly 2.2 men have returned to work. At the same time, there is growing concern that, as employers shift to a hybrid model, more women will continue to work from home than men, exacerbating pre-pandemic inequalities based on gender.  

“I hate the term opt-ing out. In many cases women don’t see or have a choice,” said Lisa Skeete Tatum, the founder and CEO of career pathing platform LandIt. “If companies don’t address this and adjust, they are going to be in for a rude awakening as more and more women continue to leave.”

Skeete Tatum — who believes the number of women who have left the workforce since the pandemic is underreported — is hearing from women that the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel that many workers see is invisible to them. While only 12% of elementary and middle schools remain fully closed, more than a third of fourth and eighth graders are still learning remotely, full-time. Alongside the outsize burnout that women are enduring amid the pandemic impact, how female workers move forward in their career remains a question mark. 

Working moms are 1.5 times more likely than working fathers to spend an additional three or more hours per day on housework and childcare, according to research from McKinsey. And remote working mothers show much lower levels of well-being than remote working fathers.

“It’s like I’m teetering on a balance beam, and anything else added will make me fall off,” wrote Vicky Abihsira, a marketing strategist working from home in Miami with a toddler and newborn baby. “It’s time to have honest conversations about what working parents need, if you want to keep them and prevent the exodus of working mamas.”

What may be worse is that nearly a quarter of mothers said they worried that their work performance was being judged negatively because of their caregiving responsibilities.

“It is not just about companies giving workers the choice to come back to the office,” said Skeete Tatum. “You have to question what that means for investment and development.”

The challenges are far worse for women of color. Latina mothers are 1.6 times more likely than white mothers to be responsible for all childcare and housework and Black mothers are twice as likely, according to McKinsey. With these stats in mind, as offices begin to welcome workers back, it’s safe to assume that many women of color will continue to work from home. That worries Skeete Tatum, who says it could only further isolate minority women at work. 

“Women of color are already in situations where they are in the room and not seen, and now you find yourself with the double disadvantage of being remote,” she said. “If organizations are not intentional, they are taking a problem that has persisted for decades and made it worse.” 

For Skeete Tatum, who works with companies to give women and diverse groups resources to help them grow professionally, companies need to be transparent about their return to work policies. If employers aren’t clear about how work should be conducted in a hybrid model, underrepresented groups will suffer.

The only way to do this well is to meet individual employees where they are, Skeete Tatum said. Managers will need to invest the time and resources to allow work to work for everyone on their team. Otherwise, women will opt out.

“We need to move past just the initial [counting] of who we are hiring and think more about how they are going to thrive once they get there,” she said. 

What’s Working

‘Inextricably linked.’ The pandemic made it clear for Americans that “people’s work lives and their personal lives are inextricably linked, and if one suffers, so does the other,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Noting that policies on Capitol Hill have not reflected this reality, Yellen’s comments signal the possibility of forthcoming change, which would benefit millions of working women who are still not back at work. [Broadsheet] 

Black BONDs at work. Valence, a startup working to empower Black professionals, launched a program to help employers retain and promote Black talent. With more than 16,000 Black professionals a part of the Valence community, the startup is now focused on how organizations can ensure Black workers thrive. [TechCrunch]

More women, less fraud. Banks with more female directors faced lower and less-frequent fines for misconduct, leading to an average savings of roughly $8 million a year per bank, according to Barbara Casu of Cass Business School at City University of London. The researchers found that companies need at least three women directors to change the dynamic on a board. [HBR]

What’s Not

Burnout. A study of working parents found that 9.8 million working mothers in America experience workplace burnout and it’s more pronounced for Black, Latina and Asian mothers. Ruchika Tulshyan, the author of “The Diversity Advantage,” breaks down this reality with her friend Dr. Yumiko Kadota, a surgeon in Sydney, by discussing their own experiences. [NYTimes]

• JOIN US LIVE: I’m talking with Ruchika at 12ET on Wednesday, May 12th from the LinkedIn News page on biases Asian women face at work. Join us via the link above.

What topics do you want to discuss next time? Let me know in the comments below using #WorkingTogether