Women need help navigating workplace benefits and support

• Key Insight: Here's why hundreds of thousands of women are voluntarily leaving the U.S. workforce.
• Expert Quote: "We are our own support system." — Abby Nydam, CEO of expert-led support platform Sam.
• Forward Look: Employers should consider partnering with specialized platforms to guide women through benefits.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

From navigating career changes and new life milestones, to dealing with grief and caring for an elderly parent, women need more clarity on how their organizations can support them.

More than 400,000 women left the U.S. workforce between January and August 2025, according to a recent survey of more than 1,000 working adults by Catalyst, a global nonprofit focused on advancing women in the workplace. The exodus may not be driven solely by a lack of support, but also by the difficulty of understanding and accessing the resources available to them — underscoring the need for employers to rethink how they support women through the benefits and life challenges that can push them out of work.

"The environment for women in the workplace is very hostile," said Abby Nydam, CEO of Sam, an expert-led support platform designed to help women navigate their benefits. "Our experience can be so negative and we're afraid to voice when we need help. We need to change that."

Read more: AI is widening the gender pay gap

Where benefit administration is failing women

Caregiving — specifically eldercare — is one of the largest drivers for women leaving the workforce. In fact, according to the data from Catalyst, 42% of women who have voluntarily left their jobs cited caregiving and childcare responsibilities as the reason. This is especially concerning when combined with findings from a recent report from AARP and S&P Global, which found that 71% of caregivers said their leave could have been avoided if they'd had access to adequate and easy-to-use workplace support. 

Mental health and wellness benefits also often experience the same kind of oversight. According to Catalyst, 20% of women who left their roles reported high levels of burnout — an experience Nydam knew all too well. Nydam shared that after suffering the loss of a family member, it was difficult to find access to grief and bereavement resources. That struggle is what eventually inspired her to launch Sam, where she connected with many other women facing very similar gaps in access to mental health needs.   

"[The workforce] does not have a support system for women — we are our own support system," Nydam said. "So when something goes wrong for us, what happens? We're forced into a broken system with underserved areas and told to try to figure this out on your own."

Creating better pathways of support

The first step, Nydam said, is to go beyond traditional benefits administration and take a woman-centered approach — one that accounts for the challenges women face and uses that understanding to help them feel seen and valued as employees. 

Organizations can partner directly with Sam or refer employees to the platform on an as-needed basis. Sam then connects users with a personal navigator who listens to their situation and matches them with vetted experts who can help them understand their options. Through one-on-one sessions, users leave with a personalized support plan and clear next steps. The goal, Nydam said, should be to help women move from feeling overwhelmed and out of control to feeling supported and equipped to move forward.

Read more: Ease strain on sandwich caregivers with these benefit categories

"We need to protect women in the workforce," she said. "We need to make it clear to them that we want them to stay in their jobs. That's what progress should look like."

Protecting women's participation in the workforce will require more than intentional workplace policies and tools, Nydam said. It will also require an entire perception shift that prioritizes giving women practical, personalized support.

"The more solutions we offer for women and the more we have human, personalized spaces that we can come to and use, the better off we're going to be," Nydam said. "[Despite everything going on] I am an optimist, and I do know that when women come together amazing things happen."