Moms who lost their jobs during pandemic are struggling to return to work

California is reopening and people are heading back to work. But for mothers who lost their jobs or left their positions to take on schooling and other responsibilities at home during the pandemic, returning to the workplace isn’t so simple.

As of May 2021, employment for women without children had nearly recovered to what it was like pre-pandemic. But those with school-age children were 6% behind their peers without kids, CalMatters reports. And women living with a partner were two times more likely to still be unemployed than men living with a partner.

Women having a hard time returning to their pre-pandemic work lives also took on a larger portion of child care during the pandemic. Working moms who held the primary responsibility for child care increased from 33% to 45% in 2020, but that stayed consistent around 10% for men, according to a study from the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research.

“I think families are going to hobble through it until we get some of the big stuff like the school’s back operating,” Christine Beckman, professor of public policy at the University of Southern California, told CalMatters.