WOMEN’S SHARE OF THE 140,
100% U.S. JOBS LOST IN DECEMBERthe labor force entirely,”
Pollak says. “It really is
mothers who are bearing
the brunt of the crisis.”
The fact that moms—
rather than dads—are
shouldering the bulk of
family obligations became
vividly obvious in Septem-
ber, when schools resumed.
With classrooms remote,
“hybrid,” or some unpre-
dictable mix, 865,
women dropped out of the
labor force in that month
alone—four times the
number of men who left.
“Bringing everyone back
into the house exposed the
wound of gender inequal-
ity,” says Misty Heggeness,
a principal economist with
the U.S. Census Bureau.
“For women with children
in their households, the
struggle has been real in
a way that women haven’t
experienced for decades.”
Heggeness points out
that men—as fathers and
business leaders—could
do “a lot more” to take on
childcare responsibilities
and “to actively encour-
age change in other men’s
behavior.” But any systemic
fixes will require federal
policy, including legislation
that centers on mothers
and the affordable child-
care infrastructure that
would enable more women
to remain in the workforce.
President Joe Biden’s
proposed $1.9 trillion
COVID-19 relief plan
would be a good start,
several economists and
policy experts tell Fortune;it includes child tax credits
for low-income families
and $25 billion to support
the country’s flounder-
ing childcare providers.
The Biden administration
proposals also include an
expansion of paid leave;
an increase in vaccine
rollouts, which could help
schools and day-care cen-
ters reopen more quickly;
and a federal minimum
wage of $15 per hour, an
increase that advocates say
would directly benefit the
women of color dispro-
portionately working in
low-wage service jobs.
All of these policies are
expensive, of course, and
the Democrats’ razor-thin
hold on Congress will com-
plicate President Biden’s
efforts to enact them. In
the interim, some private
employers are trying to
make a significant, if non-
systemic, difference.
“The lasting impacts of
this are going to be far-
reaching,” warns NickleLaMoreaux, chief HR
officer for IBM. Beyond
expanding some employee
benefits, the enterprise-
tech giant is widening
eligibility for a “return-
ship” program that hires
and trains women who
have taken a break from
the workforce. “This is not
a sprint,” she says. “This is
going to be a marathon for
female employees—and
for their employers.”
But while tech compa-
nies are known for their
rich benefits, the industry
writ large has a shoddy
track record of hiring
women. Instead, some
of the biggest private
employers of women are
retail companies, which
largely rely on their work-
ers showing up in person.
When Fortune asked eight
of the largest brick-and-
mortar retailers about
how they are supporting
their female workers, the
response was mixed. Some
said they haven’t seenwomen struggle to stay in
their workforces. Others
said they have expanded
paid leave or pandemic-era
bonus pay. Target offered
the most concrete plan,
saying it is providing all
U.S. employees with un-
limited company-paid in-
home or day-care “backup
care” through May.
Telecom titan Verizon
offers another potential
example of how to support
essential workers with
childcare obligations.
When lockdowns closed
70% of Verizon’s stores,
the company retrained the
8,000 affected workers—
including many women—
to do at-home tele-sales or
other remote jobs. Verizon
allowed some of those
workers to remain remote
or go part-time even as
stores reopened—and
expanded its paid childcare
benefits for all employees,
offering to reimburse up
to $15 per hour and $
per day.
“For a lot of parents,
this broke their work/
life infrastructure,” says
Christy Pambianchi, the
company’s chief HR officer.
She credits these expanded
benefits with a lower-than-
normal turnover at Verizon
last year—and says the
not-insignificant price was
worth it.
“It is expensive,” Pam-
bianchi says, though she
declines to share the exact
cost of Verizon’s pro-
grams. “But on the other
hand, turnover has a high
expense. And we think
it’s really important that
our employees know, and
society knows, that we’re
here for them.”THE BRIEF — EMPLOYMENTOnline ed: When schools started up in September, women
dropped out of the workforce at four times the rate of men.AL SEIB—LOS ANGELES TIMES/GETTY IMAGES