According to Tami Forman at Fortune, the women’s work participation rate is down to 57%. It has not been this low since 1988. It is especially bad, according to Forman, because many women have now been out of the workforce for two years . Having this large a gap on their résumés a is problem for prospective employers.

Why are women not returning to the workforce?

When the lockdowns of 2020 forced families to be at home, several things happened. As much as people complain about having to be with their families 24/7, some actually found a renewed purpose and joy in their together time. Some women found that they preferred being at home, being a wife and/or mother, and caring for their family. When schools that went remote were “reopened,” some parents had to deal with the frustration of closures at the drop of a hat and ever-changing quarantine rules, so going back to work seemed impractical. Some mothers and fathers saw firsthand what was being taught to their children in public school and were convinced that they needed to pull their children out and embark on a homeschooling journey. Still others found that it was adequate to have just one income.

Granting mothers the freedom to be stay-at-home moms is not a bad thing. The Left is very contemptuous of a woman choosing to stay home. After all, the feminist forebears worked too hard for equality in the workplace only to have women choose to stay home. Feminist icon Simone de Beauvoir went so far as to make an ultimatum: “No woman should be authorized to stay home to raise her children. Women should not have that choice, because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.”

The pushing of women into the workforce as a matter of duty hurts women. Frankly, it hurts the whole family in a myriad of ways. Working moms come home and often feel like they are not giving their best to their kids. The mom guilt is real. Dads feel powerless to help ease the burden. And kids are being raised by their childcare providers and the schools. This last bit has led to heartache and devastation as many public schools indoctrinate your children with anti-American, anti-family “virtues.”

That being said, moms staying at home isn’t an option for all families. Single moms, for example, do not have the luxury to not be working. There is still a faction of women that needs to or wants to go back to work, but with family needs and school reliability being in disarray, work is not conducive to the schedule of a busy mom. Tami Forman is right about one thing: “Employers need to grapple with their own bias around career breaks, specifically those for caregiving.”