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Here's a stunning stat: Women are leaving the workforce 

The burden of parenting and running a household while also working a job during the pandemic has created a pressure cooker environment in many households, and women are bearing the brunt of it.

It has come to a head as a new school year starts with many children staying home instead of returning to their classrooms in person because of the pandemic. And its forcing many women to make a difficult choice and drop out of the workforce altogether.

Just in September, 865,000 women over 20 dropped out of the American workforce compared with 216,000 men in the same age group, the Labor Department reported Friday.

"It was a really startling difference," said University of Michigan economist Betsey Stevenson. "The child care crisis is wreaking havoc on women's employment."

 of working from home while caring for her children. She took a leave of absence from her federal job after finding it impossible to do her normal work from home while her three children — ages 8, 11, and 13 — were also at home doing virtual school.

When news came that the kids' schools in Fairfax County, Va., would only partially reopen at best, she decided: "I can't keep this up. This is too much." 

Stevenson says the burden of home schooling, cooking and cleaning "is taking its toll on a lot of families. Even when men are doing more than they've perhaps done in any other generation, it's still not half."

Indeed, the Labor Department finds that married mothers do 

 the amount of household chores and parenting as married fathers.

 of all payroll jobs, for only the second time in history. Now, women now account for 

 in restaurants, retail, and health care — industries that were hard hit by the pandemic and which employ a lot of women, Stevenson notes.  

Business and Economic News

Health

COVID-19

Avie Schneider

Author

Andrea Hsu

Scott Horsley

Women left jobs at four times the rate of men in September. The burden of parenting and running a household while also working a job has created a pressure cooker environment that's pushing women out.

Enough already: Multiple demands causing women to abandon workforce

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