The Alarming Stats That Show How The “Mom Recession” Is Setting Women Back

COVID-19 has caused a “she-cession,” worsening gender, racial, and economic inequality. Hundreds of thousands of moms have fled or been forced from the workforce. Some are “lucky” and don’t need jobs in order to keep food on the table. Some are descending into poverty.

Mothers’ work hours dropped four to five times more than fathers’ between March and April. Many mothers reduced their work hours by about 5%, or two hours per week, but fathers’ work hours were pretty much the same. The gender gap in work hours has increased by 20–50%.

Women of color are more likely to be employed in the service sector, which is disproportionately affected by COVID. 28% of Black women work in service jobs; one-fifth of white women do. A fifth of child care jobs are gone; 20% of child care workers are Latina while 19% are Black.

Women’s labor adds $7.6 trillion to the U.S. GDP yearly, more than Japan’s entire $5.2 trillion GDP. But senior-level women are 1.5 times more likely than senior-level men to consider leaving work now. The gender gap will widen in leadership, creating a “broken rung” in ladders toward promotions.

On average, mothers spend 15 hours more a week than fathers on domestic labor. 70% are mostly or totally responsible for housework during the pandemic, and 66% say they’re responsible for child care, about the same as non-pandemic figures.

Lisa Selin Davis is the author of TOMBOY: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different. She has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Salon, The Guardian, and many other publications, and is the author of two novels.