As word of “The Great Resignation” began to reverberate among employers earlier this year, something interesting happened. Even as female workforce participation hit its lowest level since the 90s, we began to hear from employers that they wanted to make a conscious effort to hire more women — and mothers in particular.
It’s an initiative that is much needed: over 2.3 million women left the workforce during COVID and even more recently, one in four women said they were still considering downshifting their careers or quitting, according to LeanIn and McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace study, released in September of 2021.
