Expert: Women Returning to Work Face Short-Term, Long-Term Challenges

04/06/2021

Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu

As more school districts are reopening to in-person instruction for students, there are more women who were sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic looking to return to their careers.

But the path back to the workforce may not be an easy one, according to Beth Humberd, an expert on gender and diversity in the workplace and an associate professor of management in UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business.

“If we assume women are able to return to the workforce with ease – and that’s a big assumption – the challenges will largely be related to acclimating to new routines and a still tentative set of support structures,” such as after care programs with limited openings and health concerns with family members, said Humberd.

“As the pandemic has made clear, managing child-care gaps still overwhelmingly falls to mothers,” Humberd said. “So even as women return to the workforce, they are doing so amidst a patchwork of support structures and pandemic-related constraints that still exist, such as quarantine rules that may require a child be home from school/daycare if they are deemed a close contact; this will require continued flexibility on the part of employers and open/transparent communication between employees and their managers.”

The issues facing women who want to go back to work are even more complex than re-establishing a daily routine for their family, according to Humberd. The bigger issues of the “she-cession,” which Humberd can discuss in detail, include:

• Given that decades of progress in women’s labor force participation were erased within months, there will be many pains with some gains, as women are able to re-enter the workforce.
• Re-entry into the workforce for this cohort of women will present unique dynamics. While there may be less need to explain a career break during this period, harder-hit industries may not readily have openings to which women can return.
• Statistics suggest as many as 1 in 4 women had to pare back their work hours to part time. Depending on how that was arranged, this could make it harder to scale back up (if the hours were given to another worker) or easier (if the job was held for the employee).

To arrange an interview with Humberd, please contact Christine Gillette at 978-758-4664 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu or Nancy Cicco at 978-934-494 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu.