Prior to the pandemic, women made up more of the labor force than men, earned more degrees than men, and held more than half of management occupations.

All this progress came to a halt when, in the spring of 2020, schools and child care centers across the country began to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Without access to child care, many working families faced difficult decisions and uncertainty. As a result, 5.1 million mothers in the United States left the workforce. Today, 1.3 million still remain out of work.