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During the pandemic, the number of women who cited child care or family responsibilities as the reason for leaving the workforce increased 178%, while the number of men citing it less than doubled, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab.

Once women leave the workforce because of these strains, it is harder to return and they face a trajectory of decreased pay over the course of their careers, data shows.

The difficulty is even worse for women of color, who report higher levels of difficulty finding child care than white mothers, who often live in so-called \"daycare deserts,\" research shows, and who face even greater income inequality than white women.

Kenya Bradshaw, vice president of an education company with 500 employees, said she started seeing an overwhelming number of female employees using up vacation days early on in the pandemic, and is now seeing them leave their jobs because of child care issues.

\"Many of our women actually make more than their husbands, but they are the ones who are the lead child care provider, so because of that, their families are also taking on some additional economic strain,\" she said. \"These are middle class women I'm talking about in most cases.\"

\"I'm concerned about the burden of low to moderate wage employees who don't even have the flexibility to make that decision,\" added Bradshaw, who received thousands of replies when she posted about the topic on social media.

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\"If the school is the only institution that is keeping us from breaking as a country, then we have a problem and we need to fix that,\" she said. \"This is not an individual household problem and we as a country need to think about this.\"

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Working moms total about 23.5 million in the U.S., or nearly one-third of all employed women, according to Census data.

For the economy to come back even stronger after the pandemic, the needs of working moms when it comes to child care cannot be ignored, experts say.

\"Child care is the backbone to the American economy and lack of child care is the biggest barrier for women to be fully employed,\" said Allvin. \"Without safe, affordable, high quality child care, the rest of America doesn't work.\"

The child care industry was allotted $3.5 billion in emergency aid in March under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, which also gave some parents eligibility for unemployment benefits, but child care advocates say it is not enough to help the industry long term.

Also not enough, advocates say, are the state policies that popped up to try to help child care centers during the pandemic.

\"A lot of those were temporary fixes and may not be extended as states reopen,\" said Lynette Fraga, Ph.D., CEO of Child Care Aware of America. \"There is no doubt that a federal solution is absolutely necessary, and a federal investment, supported by state solutions and state-by-state policies, that can raise up that federal solution.\"

One federal solution, the Child Care Is Essential Act, sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., would give $50 billion to help child care centers during and after the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation passed the House of Representatives in July, but is stalled in the Senate, where it is sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has included caregiving as part of his economic plan.

The former vice president's plan, announced in July, centers around expanding access to long-term care for elderly and disabled Americans, as well as creating accessible, safe child care options for working parents. The plan would create 1.5 million new jobs in both fields and would also focus on increasing pay for caregivers and early childhood educators, say advisers.

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In December, President Donald Trump unveiled his administration's Principles for Child Care Reform, which calls for putting parents first and increasing child care choices for families, reauthorizing and reforming the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act, modernizing the child care business model and improving the implementation of background checks for child care providers, among other proposals.

“President Trump has always prioritized increasing access to affordable, high quality child care in America, and in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, that’s never been more important,\" Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign told \"GMA\" in a statement. \"Hardworking parents across America are empowered under President Trump, and he’ll continue his focus on ensuring the U.S. is the best place in the world to conduct business, work, and raise a family over the next four years.”

In the U.S., parents spend about $42 billion per year on early care and education, while public spending, a mix of federal, state and local government money, is about $34 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.

In a 2015 report showing public spending on early childhood education and care as a percentage of countries' GDPs, Iceland and Sweden topped the list, while the U.S. ranked nearly last.

\"It's so unwise for the government to not fund child care,\" said Michel. \"It has long-term consequences, not just for individuals and families but for society as a whole.\"

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