How the coronavirus pandemic is pushing moms out of the workforce: Tell us your stories – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio Ask any mom, and she can recall her first big corona-cry. The moment when she realized this virus was not a three-week spring break, as Gov. Mike DeWine originally deemed it, but rather an eternal tight-rope walk balancing work and childcare cut off from all support.

Uncertainty, anxiety, isolation, plus endless pots of pasta to cook and clean up, a kid adamantly refusing to do his math homework and daily battles over the brushing of teeth.

Dont look down or youll fall into the pit of despair.

The yoke is untenable. And its pushed many mothers to downsize their jobs or opt out of the workforce altogether.

Consider this: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the economy lost 140,000 net jobs in December, marking the first month of job loss since the economy started adding jobs in May 2020. All of the jobs lost were womens, with women losing 156,000 jobs and men gaining 16,000.

Between January 2020 and January 2021, the number of female jobs fell 6.8% or 5.2 million, while the number of male jobs fell 5.8% or 4.4 million. While the difference may seem negligible, its a reversal from recent years.

This mass exodus of women from the workforce is a national emergency, and it demands a national solution, Vice President Kamala Harris wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. Job loss, small business closings and a lack of child care have created a perfect storm for women workers.

In a spring survey, Lean In found that 31% of women with full-time jobs and families said they have more to do than they can possibly handle, while 13% of working men with families said the same.

Women are disproportionately feeling overwhelmed because they are disproportionately the ones working day and night to keep households afloat, Lean In co-founders Sheryl Sandburg and Rachel Thomas wrote in Fortune.

That leaves us hissing IM ON VIDEO to kids whining for cookies while were on a Zoom screen. Taking work calls at the dinner table. Attempting to break up sibling fights from a different room. Pounding the keys of our laptops in front of the TV at night, while mainlining peanut-butter-fudge ice cream from Target (when they have it in stock). There is no longer work-life balance, just work-life integration. You never feel like youre off the clock.

When people ask, How do you do it? I answer honestly: I yell a lot. I also have a helpful husband taking on the bulk of our sons fractions meltdowns. And I commiserate a lot. Thank God for good friends, text chains and Mean Girls emojis. Because were all doing the best we can, and feeling like were failing a lot of the time.

A survey administered of Millennial moms ages 24 to 39 by the website Motherly found that 86% experience burn out at least occasionally, and a large portion (41%) are feeling burnout frequently (35%) or worse, all the time (6%).

Related: How can I work from home with kids during the coronavirus pandemic?

As schools went remote, mothers often took over teaching, while still handling the bulk of housework and taking on more.

According to McKinseys 2020 Women in the Workplace study, mothers are more than three times as likely as fathers to be responsible for most of the housework and caregiving. The extra burden has intensified moms traditional double shift. And McKinsey worries that as more women leave the workforce, businesses will face a dearth of women leaders and women will see a widening wage gap.

Business experts urge employers to relieve the stress on working moms. But what about our communities?

A society must have childcare in order to function. And relying on mothers to do it all, or even to do most, is counter-productive.

According to the U.S. Census, 44% of working mothers 25 or older have a bachelors degree or higher, compared with 38% of all workers 25 or older. Nearly half of working mothers work in management, business, science and the arts.

These are important occupations, and we need dedicated, innovative women in them. Moms know how to get stuff done.

Yet 61% of out-of-work women with at least one child under the age of 6 reported caretaking as the reason for their joblessness. For women with kids age 6-17, the statistic was 46%. And for the general unemployment population, 10%. And that was before the pandemic!

A 2018 report from the Center for American Progress found that in no state does the cost of center-based infant or toddler child care meet the federal definition of affordable, at no more than 7% of annual household income.

We all lose when women drop out of the workforce. Why cant society agree that affordable child care would improve our communities as much as serviceable roads or clean drinking water?

Life has gotten more manageable, as school and sports programs reopened. But this could be our seminal moment. Cleveland.com wants to start a Northeast Ohio conversation about working moms.

A lot of this is my story. We want to hear yours. Were looking for people who might be willing to write their experiences, even if they wish to withhold their names, or to talk with reporters about the issues they see.

What is it like to juggle childcare and jobs? How has the pandemic affected your choices? And what you propose could make life better for moms, families and the community?

Email content director Laura Johnston at ljohnston@cleveland.com with your thoughts.

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How the coronavirus pandemic is pushing moms out of the workforce: Tell us your stories - cleveland.com