Women want to work, but child care shortage keeping many at home - The Union Leader

Even as New Hampshire employers scrounge for workers, women are having a tougher time re-entering the workforce and finding jobs that accommodate current realities of family life and a statewide childcare shortage.

Women bore the brunt of job losses in the pandemic, with heavy job losses in part-time and low-paid fields dominated by women, including retail, hospitality and office support. By the end of last year, workplaces were reopening, but child care was still in short supply, with many school districts in remote-learning at least part of the week and child care centers unable to accommodate as many children.

Getting back into the workforce has been that much harder without reliable child care.

“How many women are doing what I did, hiding behind a closed door with children screaming in the other room?” asked Mac- Kenzie Nicholson, a Nottingham mother of two.

Nicholson said she interviewed for 30 jobs and even received some offers for remote work during the long months she spent looking for work after a layoff.

But it took her until this June to find a job that could realistically accommodate her family’s schedule. She found a child care spot for one child, but will have the other child at home until school starts in the fall.

Nicholson said she is thrilled to be back working, with a job in her field at an organization that understands child care is a delicate balance.

A recently released state report underlined that lack of child care is still keeping women out of the workforce. Advocates worry that too many women who want to work will remain sidelined until school starts, unable to find child care or jobs that offer the flexibility families need right now.

“It’s not even returning to the workplace, but it’s returning to a job that has acknowledged the world has changed forever,” said Christina D’Allesandro, state director of MomsRising, an advocacy group.

“They’re wanting to go back. They’re getting back in,” D’Allesandro said. “We just hope that child care system is going to be able to right itself.”

But D’Allesandro said remote work is not a substitute for affordable, high-quality child care.

Remote work helps parents by cutting down commuting time and shortening the amount of time children need care. But she said people cannot really focus on work and attend to the needs of small children at the same time. Parents have to schedule time for drop-offs and pick-ups, and there are times that children are home during business hours.

Some help is coming for working families. The first child tax credit payment, from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan stimulus bill, will hit bank accounts later this month. New Hampshire will use some of the funding from the stimulus bill to fund scholarships for child care, though D’Allesandro worries the income limits on the program will keep middle-class families from getting needed help with child care.

Now working from home, Nicholson said the balance can still be draining. She wants to be there for her children, but she also wants to show her new employers that she is a hard worker. As someone new on the job, she said, it can feel a little daunting to ask her new bosses for flexibility.

“It’s such a delicate balance,” she said.

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Women want to work, but child care shortage keeping many at home - The Union Leader
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