Lindsay Thomas’s experience reflects a growing trend: more women are leaving the workforce, driven by the challenges of balancing career and family, the return to office mandates and the increasing threat of job displacement due to artificial intelligence.
After having her first child, Thomas returned to her full-time, in-office job. When a second child arrived in 2024, she negotiated a part-time, remote version of her communications role in medical research – working between 2 and 40 hours a month – and supplemented her income with freelance work. This flexibility, she says, has been crucial. “Now, when a kid gets sick and I’m up all night – something that would have made me ‘spiral’ when I worked in the office – I know I’ll be at home with the flexibility to schedule my day,” Thomas explained. Without the option to freelance, she added, she would have considered leaving the workforce altogether to focus on childcare.
Thomas’s story is part of a larger pattern. The number of working mothers of young children, aged 25 to 44, fell nearly 3% between January and June of last year, reaching its lowest rate in over three years, according to a recent report. In December alone, 91,000 women over the age of 20 dropped out of the workforce, while the number of employed men over 20 increased by 10,000, according to an analysis by the National Women’s Law Center.
The rise of AI is exacerbating the issue. A March 2026 report from Anthropic found that women are 16% more likely to work in roles susceptible to automation, putting them at greater risk of layoffs. Simultaneously, a wave of companies are reinstating return-to-office mandates, creating a conflict for working mothers who also manage after-school care and household responsibilities. Mass layoffs across various sectors have further destabilized the job market.
Women, on average, earn 85% of what men earn and shoulder approximately twice as much domestic labor and caregiving responsibilities, creating a significant imbalance. Brea Starmer, CEO of staffing firm Lions and Tigers, which specializes in fractional workers, noted, “The real friction is we just haven’t built systems that allow people to integrate their work and their lives and and their desires and what do they want their life to glance like. For anyone that doesn’t fit this very specific narrow look and perceive and mold, there is just not a lot of options.”
Freelancing is emerging as a potential solution for working parents seeking greater control over their schedules and finances. Employers are also increasingly recognizing the value of hiring part-time and contract workers, particularly as AI transforms company needs and the demand for specialized skills grows. According to a survey by Upwork, more than half of executives reported losing a disproportionate number of women after implementing return-to-office policies, with turnover among female employees at these companies reaching 82% compared to those offering remote work options. Nearly a third of women freelancers cited return-to-office policies as a direct reason for leaving their full-time jobs.
The challenges extend beyond simply finding employment. Forty-two percent of women who voluntarily left the workforce in 2025 cited caregiving and childcare costs as the primary reason, and these women were more likely to have worked at companies without flexible schedules, according to a survey from Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on women’s progress.
Gabby Burlacu, senior manager at the Upwork Research Institute, observed a shift in employer attitudes. “What we historically saw was that business leaders were maybe a little more hesitant to embrace these kinds of non-traditional work models,” she said. “Now, business leaders are far more open to working with the most skilled talent that they can, especially the most AI-enabled talent, since they’re all trying to figure out: How are we going to unlock the value of this technology?”
While freelance work offers flexibility and can ease childcare costs, it can also lead to an increased burden of unpaid household and caregiving labor. Jaime Hollander, who transitioned to full-time freelancing after her father’s death in 2019, found herself becoming the “default parent,” responsible for all of her children’s needs throughout the day. “If something has to obtain done between 7 and 7, I will do it,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s really challenging.”
Paid parental exit remains limited in the US, with only 40% of companies offering it as of 2023, according to the Society for Human Resources Management. Short-term leave tied to childbirth doesn’t address the ongoing flexibility needs of working parents as their children grow and face challenges such as illness or school demands. Neha Ruch, author of “The Power Pause,” emphasized the need for companies to consider parenting as a longitudinal experience, extending support through college admissions and beyond.
Many working parents are choosing freelance or part-time work not immediately after having children, but as their families’ needs evolve. Erin Bartholomew, after being laid off from her remote marketing job in 2024, started her own marketing consultancy, finding it offered a better work-life balance. However, access to these flexible arrangements remains uneven, with those in office-based roles, education, retail, and healthcare often lacking the same opportunities.
