Mothers are being pushed out of the workforce. NC can do more to help | Opinion

Lauren Cantwell, a mother of two worked, left her job as an operations manager in May because she felt she couldn’t always be there for both her employer and her children.

Cantwell, 32, of Fuquay Varina, said her job required her to work from the office and sometimes to work overtime. When something came up with her children, ages 3 and 1, during work she and her husband had to scramble to see who could respond.

“It’s almost easier for me to not be working and have one parent who is fully available to the kids when the kids are sick without us having the mental load of which one of us is going to take off,” she said.

Cantwell is part of the national trend of women, particularly mothers, leaving the workforce because of the return to the office mandates and the cost and scarcity of child care. In the first half of this year, more than 212,000 women left, according to a study by the University of Kansas. The decline reverses workforce gains by mothers who benefited from the flexibility of working from home during the pandemic.

The problem is especially acute in North Carolina because of a lack of policies that would support working mothers by providing greater workplace flexibility and lower-cost child care. North Carolina does not provide mandatory paid family leave and medical leave for private sector workers and its child care subsidies are uneven and inadequate.

Not surprisingly, the state’s workforce participation rate for women with children younger than 6 ranks 35th in the nation.

“It seems to be all across the state that women and mothers are choosing — and some not voluntarily — to leave the workforce. Child-care cost seems to be a major factor in that,” said Annette Taylor, chair of the NC Council for Women, an advisory group to the governor, the legislature and state agencies. “North Carolina is known for being a top place for business. There is a dispute about whether it’s the best place for women to work.”

Extra child-care funds provided by the federal government during the pandemic have expired, and stop-gap funds provided by the state ran out at the end of March. Since January, 158 child-care centers have closed and many more are barely hanging on hoping that the next state budget – currently stalled – will provide more funding.

Beth Messersmith of the North Carolina chapter of the women’s advocacy group MomsRising, said mothers who have left the workforce do so reluctantly. “They have skills, they want to be contributing, they want to be improving their families’ economic security, but it just isn’t sustainable,” she said. “The balancing act people are trying to do without the policies and support that make it possible is exhausting.”

Cantwell agrees. “You get pushed to the brink and you have to pick one or the other,” she said, “and I think moms are going to choose what is best for their kids.”

Women dropping out of the workforce is a trend nationally, but North Carolina could do much more to offset the trend.

For instance, it could increase subsidies for child-care centers to increase the availability of child care. It could expand pre-K programs. And, like 13 states and the District of Columbia, it could create more workplace flexibility by requiring paid family and medical leave programs that allow parents freedom to assist children and aging parents.

Starting in November, New Mexico will become the first state to offer free child care regardless of income. It’s doing so by setting aside funds from its oil and gas resources.

North Carolina doesn’t have those resources, but the Republican-controlled legislature could have endowed a child-care fund. Instead, they chose to repeatedly cut taxes at a cost of billions of dollars annually. Even now, with the economy slowing and federal funds being reduced, some lawmakers want further tax cuts.

Republicans say all the tax cutting has helped make North Carolina the top state for business – though it was ranked highly even before Republicans took control of the legislature. In any case, the neglect of child care and pre-K is cutting the workforce that businesses need. The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce estimates that the high cost and low availability of child care is costing North Carolina $5.65 billion in lost economic activity each year.

“I know we’re facing many competing priorities in the state budget, but the consequences are going to be very real and hard to reverse if we don’t invest in child care soon,” Messersmith said. “We have to figure it out because we cannot afford not to.”

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com

This story was originally published September 22, 2025 at 10:47 AM.