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- US women are working at near-record levels.
- Remote work, stay-at-home dads, and the gender pay gap could nudge more women into the workforce.
- But the return-to-office movement could force some women to stop working in the short term.
Half of the country's workers are women. It's the third time in US history that's been the case, and the trend may finally be here to stay.
As of July, 49.9% of US employees were women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics establishment survey. This figure reached an all-time high of 50.1% in December 2019, before falling as low as 49.2% during the pandemic. It first hit this peak in 2009 and 2010, when many men lost jobs during the Great Recession.
As of June, a record-high 77.8% of US women between the ages of 25 and 54 were working or actively looking for work.
Aaron Terrazas, Glassdoor's chief economist, said women's share of the workforce could fall a bit as return-to-office mandates force some women to quit their jobs or forego employment.
"Beyond a near-term dip, women's share of the labor force will probably inch higher over the long term," he said.
Terrazas told Insider he expects women to account for a growing share of the workforce in the years and decades ahead for three key reasons.
First, remote work is likely to continue boosting women's employment.
Over the past decades, expanded access to higher education and family planning, in addition to shifting societal norms, were responsible for women's growing prevalence in the workforce, Terrazas said, but the gains from these factors have largely been exhausted. In recent years, however, he said a new factor — the remote-work revolution — has been crucial to increasing women's presence in the workforce.
"By our estimates, the expansion of remote work allowed about 1 million women in their 30s and 40s to remain in the workforce at an age when prior generations may have stopped working for family and child-care responsibilities," Terrazas said, adding that college-educated women, in particular, seem to have benefited the most.
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In 2022, 41% of women worked from home compared to 28% of men, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In the years to come, Terrazas said he expects remote work to be most prevalent when demand for workers is the greatest, but its persistence should continue to benefit women.
Second, more men are becoming stay-at-home dads, which means fewer stay-at-home moms — and more women in the workforce.
"Prior to the pandemic, there was a modestly growing trend of stay-at-home fathers who were primarily caregivers for young children as more women achieved higher education/professional status and outearned their partners," Terrazas said. "That trend was a generational shift that does not appear to be reversing."
Third, the persistence of the gender pay gap could force women to work later in life — boosting the number of older women workers in particular. In 2022, a woman earned an average of 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man, according to Pew Research, up from 65 cents in 1982.
"The legacy of historical gender pay gaps has long echoes as women's lower lifetime earnings can translate into smaller retirement benefits," he said, "which leads them to remain in the labor force slightly longer than men."
Going forward, Terrazas said the pace at which women take over the US workforce will depend on several factors, including the prevalence of remote work, parental-leave access, child-care affordability, and generational attitudes about caregiving.
Economic conditions will be important as well. In recent years, for instance, he said chronic labor shortages have led some companies in fields like trucking and construction to recruit in new talent pools and ultimately hire more women.
The future of AI could be yet another factor. Studies have found that women's jobs are more vulnerable to automation than men's.