US Policy Is Still Failing for Working Women: Kathryn Edwards

The US economy notched a welcome, if puzzling, milestone in 2024 when the labor force participation rate among prime-age women — 25 to 54 — rose to a record 78.4%, increasing about five percentage points from a decade earlier. This is unambiguously good, as more workers equals a bigger economy. The reason it’s perplexing is that many economists (including myself) warned at the end of 2023 that many women were about to drop out of the labor market as pandemic-era programs to support working mothers came to an end.

During the height of Covid-19, Congress sent $53 billion to states ...