Motherhood and the Shape of New Work

This past weekend, millions of Americans celebrated how moms enrich our families’ lives. As economists, we mark Mother’s Day by asking how the labor market treats those same women when they close their laptops or clock out. This year the evidence is unmistakable: Women—especially mothers—are not just participating in the economy, they are positioning themselves to run it.

Mothers have always worked, but the where and how have shifted. In early American history, most women’s labor was in the home or helping on the farm. During the Industrial Revolution, women entered factories and domestic service jobs. The rise of women’s work accelerated during World War II when millions of women filled industrial jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in far-flung places. In the latter half of the 20th century, more and more women—including married women and mothers—entered the paid workforce.

Today, women’s labor force participation is at a record high. Since 2021, the percentage of women between the ages of 25 and 54 who are employed has climbed from 74.7% to 78.2%. Predominantly female fields are also many of the fastest-growing occupations: Healthcare, veterinary medicine and mental health counseling are just three examples of female-dominated fields that have seen rapid and sustained growth over the past few years.

Beyond labor force participation, women have been earning college and graduate degrees at rising rates, steadily widening their lead in educational attainment over men over the past four decades. That educational edge positions women well for a modern economy that values problem-solving, emotional intelligence and the ability to work with data and people alike.

The Key Is Flexibility

One reason for the broader surge is that labor markets have finally become flexible enough to fit women’s—and mothers’—lives. Decades of research show that women tend to self-select jobs with greater flexibility, largely to accommodate their children’s schedules. The rise of part-time and intermittent work helped more women enter the labor force in the 1980s and ’90s.

Many women value flexibility so highly that they say they would even take a pay cut in favor of more flexibility at work. More than six in 10 stay-at-home mothers say that a flexible work arrangement would be necessary for them to return to work.

Technology has answered that demand. Remote work is rising and could reach one-quarter of all jobs by 2030. At the same time, nontraditional work arrangements like freelancing, gig work and self-employment have been on the rise. Today, nearly 60 million Americans earn income through independent or nontraditional work—jobs that offer far more flexibility and work autonomy than the 9-to-5 model ever could.

Self-employment is notably more common among women raising young children, according to recent research. These mothers benefit from greater autonomy over their work schedule, hours and location than their peers in conventional jobs. That added flexibility pays off—on average, it allows them to spend two extra hours each day with their children. As the study notes, this kind of work grants mothers “more control over their work environment,” making it easier to juggle professional duties and family life.

Flexibility even nudges family formation. IRS data show female independent contractors are more likely than employees to have children. During the pandemic, women with work-from-home options recorded a measurable baby bump, citing their ability to integrate feeding schedules and Zoom calls.

Women have long dominated the gig economy in careers like caregiving or home cleaning, but women have also become a greater percentage of app-based work such as UberEats and DoorDash. Women also make up the majority of Etsy sellers (80%) and the majority of Airbnb hosts (58%). If the transportation sector is omitted entirely, women make up a greater share of income earners than men on app-based platforms.

There’s Still Work To Be Done

To fully take advantage of all the benefits from the greater availability of flexible work, our labor policies will need to address some key structural challenges. Our tax code and labor regulations are written so that fringe benefits—like health insurance and paid leave—are tied exclusively to standard employment arrangements. While written when most workers were indeed full-time, 9-to-5 employees, these policies now create an uncomfortable challenge for mothers. Our archaic labor laws force a choice between an inflexible traditional job that comes with benefits or a flexible, independent job without them.

As an alternative, policymakers can implement reforms that allow for flexible or portable benefits that tie benefits to the worker instead of the employer. Utah was the first state to remove the presence of benefits as a condition to determine if a worker was an independent worker or a W-2 employee. This allowed companies like Shipt and Lyft to give benefits to drivers in Utah. Copycat bills have popped up across the country, as well as at the federal level. Portable benefits remove the false dichotomy between flexibility and benefits. This can be especially powerful for working moms.

While not every mother demands flexibility in her work, for some women it is a necessity that allows them to have more balance in their work and personal lives. It may even determine whether or not they choose to join the workforce at all. A dynamic labor market that generates a diversity of jobs allows women, and all workers, to pursue jobs that best fit into their lives. If we really want to celebrate mothers, we should continue working toward a world where the growth of women in the workforce is matched by a growth in flexible work arrangements to better support them.