A million women are still missing from the workforce. Here’s how to win them back.

How to think about ‘balance’ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

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Parents stretched thin In the news • Protective policies. If you’re a mom, whether you have quit your job or kept it during the COVID-19 crisis may have depended in part on where you live. Many US moms have yet to rejoin the workforce, while UK employers in 2021 actually increased the percentage of mothers working for them. In Northern and Western Europe, men were more likely than women to exit the workforce during the COVID-19 crisis, while the opposite was true in the US. European benefits such as paid leaves of absence may have helped moms keep their jobs. [WSJ] • Forget about ‘balance.’ Working moms should give up on ever attaining work–life balance, advises a female partner at a venture-capital firm. Instead, she suggests, they should accept that “every day is about making trade-offs and finding comfort in the fact that a decision was made.” Parents with jobs will sometimes need to pay more attention to what’s going on at home, while at other times, work will be their primary focus. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, “we simply cannot be everything to everyone all the time.” [Fortune] “In the early pandemic, almost 12 million women were pushed out of the workforce. The vast majority of those were working moms.” On McKinsey.com • Dwindling empathy. Millions of working moms have departed the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, essentially trading paid labor for unpaid labor, says Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code. What’s more, two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, more than a million women in the US are still missing from the workforce. At the same time, employer sympathy for the plight of working moms is dwindling, adds Saujani, author of Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think). • Who’s watching the kids? Fewer than 11% of US employers subsidize childcare. Yet multiple studies show that moms can’t get back to work until they have reliable, affordable childcare. “Childcare is an economic issue, not a personal issue,” says Saujani. “Offering childcare as a benefit is a way for companies to manage their attrition.” For more on what’s holding working moms back and what men can do to help, read the full interview, part of our Author Talks series. — Edited by Belinda Yu    Get moms back to work Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here. Or send us feedback — we’d love to hear from you. Follow our thinking This email contains information about McKinsey’s research, insights, services, or events. By opening our emails or clicking on links, you agree to our use of cookies and web tracking technology. For more information on how we use and protect your information, please review our privacy policy. You received this email because you subscribed to the On Point newsletter. Manage subscriptions | Unsubscribe Copyright © 2022 | McKinsey & Company, 3 World Trade Center, 175 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10007