The She-cession isn’t new. What’s new is our refusal to accept it.

Every few years, a headline about women “leaving the workforce” goes viral.
And every time, it lands like a breaking-news alert — as if this is the first we’re hearing of it.

Then came 2020.

At the exact same time I was watching a future of possibility unfold during my own family planning — hybrid schedules, asynchronous work, entire companies running from laptops — millions of (already) mothers were hitting a wall. Parents of school-age kids were managing Zoom school and full-time jobs. Women were burning out, stepping back, and being told it was “a choice.” It wasn’t. It was a collapse.

And here we are again.

In the U.S., roughly 455,000 women left the labor force between January and August 2025 — one of the steepest drops since the pandemic. Economists warn it could stunt long-term growth and reverse the record highs women reached just last year. (CNN, Oct 2025)

The women leaving aren’t disengaged or under-qualified. They’re highly educated, often in their prime earning years, and overwhelmingly mothers of children under five. In other words: exactly the group society should want to retain.

So, why are they leaving? The same culprits:

• Child-care costs that now outpace rent in many cities

• Return-to-office mandates that ignore how families actually function

• Public-sector layoffs that hit female-dominated departments

• The slow erosion of DEI and flexibility initiatives that once made work sustainable

Meanwhile, studies show that when flexibility is offered — even modestly — women flood back in. In 2024, prime-age women’s participation hit 78.4 percent, the highest on record, thanks largely to hybrid work. Shocking.

Every report reaches the same conclusion: women aren’t leaving because they “want balance.” They’re leaving because work was built for someone who has none of their responsibilities.

The Ohio State University’s She-cession brief put it plainly: the pandemic didn’t create gender inequities, it spotlighted them. Rigid schedules. Pay gaps. Promotion bias. A child-care infrastructure that barely exists.

And Gartner researcher Alexia Cambon warned in 2021 that remote work wasn’t the problem — it was office-centric habits clinging to a new world. Her team found that companies who redesign work around human behavior — non-linear schedules, fewer meetings, trust-based outcomes — see higher retention and better health. We just keep pretending that 9-to-5 is sacred.

Other countries, on the other hand, have already moved on.
In the Netherlands, nearly half of all workers are part-time, including 75 percent of mothers. They’re not penalized; it’s just… normal. The result? One of the highest female labor-participation rates in Europe and a smaller gender pay gap. Flexibility didn’t tank their economy — it stabilized it.

If you ask me, it’s clearly time to stop “studying” the problem and start building the solutions.

We need to be louder — and more specific — in what we’re demanding.
We need to highlight the companies already doing it right so it becomes inarguable that flexible work can work.
We need to spotlight the CEOs designing modern workplaces — the ones leveraging tech and AI for efficiency and humanity.
We need to champion the managers who care about output more than hours, and give other leaders frameworks to follow their lead.

We also need to look closer at the numbers hiding behind this so-called “she-cession.”
Because this isn’t just about women leaving — it’s about parents.

In the U.S., nearly 1 in 5 fathers say they’ve had to scale back or leave a job because of child-care challenges (Pew Research, 2023). A growing number of men say they want to spend more time caregiving but face stigma or lack of flexibility at work. When leave is gender-neutral, men take it. When flexibility is normalized, men use it. Which tells us this isn’t a “moms’ issue.” It’s a design issue — one that affects every family.

So, what can you do about it?
You can start by paying attention to what actually works — and amplifying it.

• If your company supports true flexibility, share that story.

• If your manager models trust-based work, thank them publicly.

• If you’re a leader, run the numbers — what would it look like to turn one role into a job share? Or to measure performance by outcomes instead of availability?

• If you’ve built your own flexible path, tell people how. The stories of how we got unstuck are what will help the next person do the same.

And if you’re feeling stuck right now, that’s where my focus is shifting next.

For the past few months, I’ve been collecting stories from parents who’ve hit that same crossroads — who didn’t want to quit, but couldn’t keep going under the old rules. Every one of them said the same thing: “I wish there was a guide for this.”

So, I’m building one.

STUCK by Both& is my effort to turn this conversation into something actionable — a living resource that evolves with you.

• Obstacles: career self-audits, confidence rebuilders, and real talk about partner dynamics and household logistics.

• Process: concrete how-tos — from LLCs and insurance to pricing fractional work and crafting job-share proposals.

• Community: accountability pods, resource swaps, and employer lists that treat part-time and flexible work as legitimate, not lesser.

Because I believe getting unstuck isn’t just about personal progress — it’s how we collectively shift the system.

When one parent finds a flexible path that works, it makes the case easier for the next.
When one company pilots a new structure, it normalizes it for the rest.
When we share examples of what is working — dads included — we build proof that it’s not just possible, it’s already happening.

So that’s what I’m doing.
And if you want to help shape it — or you’re ready to build your own way forward — I’d love for you to join me.

Check it out: bothand.co/stuck and let me know your thoughts!!

As always, thanks for reading and helping me change the course of work for all of us - every voice that joins in these posts and shares matters!

Kaleana