4:26
- family
- August 19, 2021
Moms feel pandemic stress as school year begins
Experts brace for a "second wave" of women being forced out of the workforce.
4:26
\"It's kind of like we haven't even accounted for the damage that has been done, and we're being ask to go in for another round,\" she said of moms. \"Before COVID it was exhausting and overwhelming to be a parent in America, and now it's just untenable.\"
Last summer, as the economy began to reopen, women's employment levels rose, but then as kids went back to school in September, the numbers dropped sharply again.
In September 2020, 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce, compared to 216,000 men, according to BLS data.
While moms are currently working at nearly the same rate as women without kids, economists say they fear another exodus of women from the workforce as the school year begins.
\"Here we are on the cusp of another school year and we have the delta variant rising; we have kids under 12 who cannot even be vaccinated; and at the same time we have companies saying, 'Everybody back in the office,' and also schools saying, 'Everybody back to school,'\" said Alicia Sasser Modestino, an economist and associate professor at Northeastern University, who predicted in an op-ed last year that the pandemic would \"set women back a generation.\"
\"I would call this the 'second wave' [of women leaving the workforce] where women who previously were able to hold onto their jobs working from home and maybe sleeping less or cutting corners and supervising kids while working from home, they no longer have that option at the same time that we're probably going to see a lot of school disruption,\" she said. \"It's going to be very difficult for moms to maintain any kind of continuity in the workplace.\"
Sara Perschino, of New Hampshire, worked full-time from home while taking care of her daughters until November, when she lost her job. She has taken on only freelance work since then with her daughters' school schedules still in flux.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/sara-persechio2-ht-rc-210818_1629306310725_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Though her daughters, ages 4 and 7, will start in-person school later this month, Perschino said she, like so many other moms, is uncertain about the future as the full-time caregiving falls on her.
\"I've had a lot of conversations with my friends and other people in the community about how this [pandemic] has highlighted that women are still doing the bulk of caregiving responsibilities,\" she said. \"We're having these conversations more globally now, so I think it's reassuring for families to see they weren't the only ones struggling with this, and to see that it's not just them, that there are systemic barriers to be able to have thriving careers and successful families.\"
\"I’m exhausted,\" she added. \"I think every working mom is exhausted right now.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/gma-SaraPersechino-ht-kk-210817_1629251871154_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
The \"great resignation,\" as Sasser Modestino calls the exit of women from the workforce during the pandemic, came just after women hit a historic milestone in the U.S.
In January 2020, women held over half of all jobs in America for just the second time in history.
Helping women reach that level again in the workforce will take months of record job gains and, according to Sasser Modestino, will require help from employers, the government and women's loved ones at home.
\"We know that the longer you take out of the labor market, your skills depreciate and the harder it is to get back in down the road,\" she said. \"If you think that talent is distributed equally across men and women, then we should really be concerned that we're seeing women leave the labor force in droves because we're losing that talent now.\"
Kate Dando Doran, a mom of two in Colorado, said that in addition to exhaustion and stress, one of the most frustrating things of working full time while also caregiving has been watching her career be unwittingly disrupted.
\"I've worked very hard to get where I am and want very much to do a good job,\" said Dando Doran, who has spent the 17 months working at her dining room table alongside her 3- and 5-year-old kids. \"I work early in the mornings and late at night to make up time. You don't want it to ever be, 'Oh, she's busy, she's focusing on her kids.'\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/gma-KateDandoDoran-ht-kk-210817_1629251871149_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
At the same time, Dando Doran said she constantly worries about the impact the pandemic is having on her children, describing one particular moment in the past year that she said nearly crushed her.
\"At one point I was pushing my daughter on the swing while answering email and she said, 'Mommy, can you please put your phone away and be with me?'\" Dando Doran recalled. \"This has been exhausting and hard for everyone.\"
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