The Pandemic Has Been Devastating For Working Moms

From the start of the pandemic, job losses among women have been the result of the collapse of female-dominated industries like hospitality, education, entertainment.

Now, women are choosing to drop out of the workforce entirely – 800,000 out of 1.1 million between August and September, to be exact. Latinx women have been disproportionately impacted, and have left the workforce at nearly three times the rate of white women and more than four times the rate of African Americans.

Challenges around discrimination and the struggle to achieve a sustainable work and family balance are not new. They were true for former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, who tells us about the discrimination she faced as the first sitting governor to give birth.

The long-term impacts of this moment, though, worry Kim Borman, executive director of the Boston Women's Workforce Council. The BWWC is a public-private partnership between the city and the business community that works to close the gender wage gap.

We also hear from Rosario Ubiera-Minaya, the executive director of Amplify Latinx, which works to build Latinx economic and political power.