School's 'In.' Are Women Out?

• Author: Hall, April
• Position: ENDNOTE

Millions of women could leave the workforce. How can the board intervene?

While working parents are used to juggling the needs of both their children and their office, attempting to work from home during a pandemic has presented a slew of new challenges. Young children need support for virtual learning, and of course, there are the young Zoom Bombers who managed to sneak up behind parents in the middle of video meetings. There's no end in sight: A quick transition to working from home has now stretched to over six months.

We've all heard these stories, and many of us have experienced it first-hand. Now that many schools will not have in-person learning in September, parents will need to again take on the role of teacher.

While most public companies do not get involved in local education issues, boards and managements must be aware of and open to a workforce that needs flexibility. In March, remote working moved to the top of the board agenda: How would the company support employees? What infrastructure did the workforce need to be successful? Now, directors need to turn an eye again to supporting employees who will be stressed and stretched over work/life balance.

One survey sponsored this summer by Care.com, a website that helps families connect with child care providers, found that of respondents who have children under the age of 15, 73% say that they may have to make major changes at work. Fifteen percent of those were considering "leaving the workforce entirely." The majority of those considering quitting their jobs are women.

In 2019, both husbands and wives worked in nearly 30 million families, according to the Department of Labor. If balancing child care and work becomes untenable at this stage of the pandemic, millions of women could leave the workforce. There are just not enough hours in the day to hold a full-time job and oversee remote school and child care.

I'm not the first one to write about this issue. Others have addressed the role managers play in accommodating hard-working employees who are also hard-working care givers. But making it work goes beyond management alone--the board should provide guidance on how to move forward.

A mass exodus by mothers from the workforce could deal a blow to a generation of women's careers. What's more, it could hobble many companies' work in gender diversity--and the competitive advantage that comes along with it. If the Care.com numbers track, the American workforce could lose nearly 4.5...