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In April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicole Peyer, 44, of Oakland, CA, was furloughed from her job as a sales consultant for a national wine and spirits distribution company.
After four months, Peyer was rehired, but her needs had changed: With two elementary-school aged kids remote learning at home, she requested a more flexible schedule that would allow her to trade off on childcare with her husband but her employers wouldn’t budge. “I think they wanted to hear that I cared about my job more than my kids,” she said. “My work, being out in the field and visiting clients, was not conducive to the fact that I now had children to watch at home because daycare and school were closed.”
Nearly 3 million U.S. women have dropped out of the labor force in the past year By Megan Cerullo Working women hit harder by COVID economic fallout
Nearly 3 million American women have left the labor force over the past year in a coronavirus-induced exodus that reflects persistent pay inequality, undervalued work and antiquated notions of caregiving.
Before the pandemic, women consisted more than 50% of the country s workforce, underlining their importance to the economy. But that number has dropped sharply as many women, particularly mothers of young children, have been furloughed or laid off. Many others have had to choose between showing up at front-line jobs or caring for their children who, with daycare centers closed and school underway remotely, would otherwise be left without supervision.