NEW FROM CCF! Mothers’ Concerns About COVID-19 and Other Illnesses Keep Them Out of the Workplace

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Daniel L. Carlson / University of Utah / daniel.carlson@fcs.utah.edu

AUSTIN, TX – April 20, 2023

A briefing paper released today from the Council on Contemporary Families, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic about Health Concerns and US Mothers’ Employment”, summarizes new research on how mothers’ concerns about community COVID-19 transmission affected their labor force participation and suggests that such concerns may exacerbate gender inequality as the threat of new pandemics and infectious diseases rises.

In an article published in Socius,professors Daniel Carlson (University of Utah), Priya Fielding-Singh (University of Utah),Richard Petts (Ball State University), and Kristi Williams (The Ohio State University) used data from 263 partnered US mothers who were employed prior to the pandemic to examine an overlooked reason why mothers’ labor force participation was affected by Covid-19, independent of work layoffs, school closures, and other external factors. They discovered that mothers’ worries about COVID-19 reduced the likelihood of their staying employed, and even when they stayed employed, led them to work fewer hours per week.

Carlson and colleagues also identified two key reasons why worried mothers participated less in the paid work force:

• Children of mothers who worried more about COVID-19 transmission spent less time at school or daycare and more time at home.
• Having children at home increased mothers’ stress, constrained their ability to work, and reduced their work hours.

Since mothers typically take primary emotional and physical responsibility for managing family health, recent and future surges in serious transmittable disease — not limited to COVID-19, but including flu, RSV, and strep throat — may negatively affect mothers’ job prospects and career advancement.

As Carlson and colleagues summarize the takeaway: “If we fail to address mothers’ concerns about COVID and other infectious diseases as they arise, current and future pandemics will continue to dampen mothers’ employment and have substantial consequences for gender equality.”

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

To contact lead author DanielCarlson, email Daniel.Carlson@fcs.utah.edu.