It’s a tale as old as the modern workplace: In the 1960s, women entered the workforce en masse, ready to compete with their male counterparts for promotions, pay, and opportunity—only to find the system wasn’t built for them.
Today, women comprise almost half of the U.S. labor force. The playing field looks different now, but the fight for equal access hasn’t gone away. It just moved into subtler territory.
Companies make quiet calculations about who’s worth “investing in,” says Corinne Low, gender economist and associate business professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Women often face career penalties in anticipation of motherhood as employers presume they’re more likely to take leave or step back. Once in their 40s, “past” childbearing, this bias fades.
But not before it’s done damage.
The cost of inaction is huge: 4 out of 10 mothers in the first five years after childbirth resign. In 2025, around 400,000 mothers with young children resigned from the U.S. workforce—the sharpest decline in more than 40 years.
Mothers face a training penalty that hinders their career advancement
On average, data shows women working full-time only earn 83% of a man’s median annual salary. Mothers face even worse odds—their pay is often reduced by 3% for every child they have.
