Where Have All the Women Gone?

Recently there’s been a dramatic shift in the American workforce. The “Great Resignation.” “The Big Quit.” In one year, more than 47 million people left their jobs voluntarily. The majority were women. “It is horrible for our economy when millions of women exit the labor force,” says economist Michelle Holder, CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. While men have regained nearly all the jobs they lost since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re still missing 2 million women. So where have all the women gone? We’ll hear Holder’s insights, as well as the stories of two women, each with young children, whose thriving careers were turned upside down by the rigidity — and sexism —built into the American workplace.

The podcast is a partnership of New America and Slate, and sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Subscribe to get all the new episodes on Slate, Apple podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts

Guests

• Kari McCracken, a mother of 5 from Lexington, Kentucky. She had a job she loved, and managed close to a hundred employees. She was furloughed at the beginning of the pandemic, and a few months later, was given only a few days to find childcare – when most were closed - or lose her job. She’s been out of work ever since. 
• Kiarica Shields, a single mother of four in Georgia, lost her job as a hospice nurse in the early days of the pandemic, then with schools and child care closed, has struggled to find the care she needs in order to find work.
• Michelle Holder, economist, CEO of the Center for Equitable Growth who has been named one of 19 Black economists to watch by Fortune. Author of two books, she recently published an important paper on the impact of COVID-19 on job losses among Black women in America.