It’s a story everyone has heard before. Accomplished entrepreneur with impressive degrees takes the child rearing detour and wanting to return to her career, realizes there are so many women like her who want flexible work and just can’t find any suitable positions.

On top of that, a global pandemic surges.

“If you’ve been out of work for 10 years, the opportunities are slim and not that interesting,” says Michelle Keefe, CEO of Mom Up, a company she launched in pre-COVID 2019.

““If you’ve been out of work for 10 years, the opportunities are slim and not that interesting,” says Michelle Keefe, CEO of @Momupco, a company she launched in pre-COVID 2019. #remotework #workingmother #femaleentrepreneur”

Her enterprise that is free to women and potential employees looking for work, but has a fee for companies looking for workers, is hoping to solve the problems of both parties. That conundrum is women looking for work and employers looking for workers with experience and a shorter, less expensive training curve.

“@Momupco, free to women and potential employees looking for work, seeks to solve the conundrum of women looking for work and employers looking for workers with experience and a shorter, less expensive training curve. #workingmom”

All of this is at a time of great economic upheaval impacting women most deleteriosuly, and particularly BIPOC women. Keefe herself has the profile of many of the clients she serves.

Born and raised outside Brockton, Mass., Keefe attended University of Notre Dame, studying English and environmental science and graduated in 2000, before moving to Washington, D.C. to work at Georgetown University as a program administrator.

Two years later, she started her own space planning company, Misha K (yes, Misha was her nickname), and built that company for residential and corporate clients. At 28, in 2006, she sold the company to former co-workers.

Heading back to Boston, Cambridge to be precise, she enrolled at Harvard University to earn a masters in environmental management from 2007 to 2009. Later, married and raising three children who are now 13, 11 and 7, here comes the atypical part.

Keefe decided to start a company with self-funding to solve the problem she was having: experience, education and no suitable flexible employment for herself or many moms like her in the same boat.

“The idea came from two directions,” says Keefe. “I saw a great resource of educated, experienced women who stepped away from their jobs. They are this massive think tank of job experience and brilliance, women who want to get back in the workforce, but don’t have the conduit to get back in.”

“Michelle Keefe decided to start @Momupco with self-funding to solve the problem she was having: experience, education and no suitable flexible employment for herself or many moms like her in the same boat. #womenlead #careergrowth”

The other direction, she says, was inspired by her husband, also an entrepreneur, who was struggling to find employees with experience who needed little training for his business venture.

“I’d love to focus on strategic partnerships with large corporations to become a funnel,” says Keefe. “And this moment in history is pivotal.”

MomUp is just one solution in a cultural shift attempting to address the financial and familial concurrent crises facing working mothers in 2021 and beyond—access to childcare, flexible hours to accommodate remote schooling, adequate pay and fairness.

“@Momupco is just one solution in a cultural shift attempting to address the financial and familial concurrent crises facing working mothers in 2021 and beyond—access to #childcare, #flexiblehours to accommodate remote schooling, adequate pay and fairness. ”

According to new research out of Washington University in St. Louis, forthcoming in Gender & Society, the “gender gap between mothers and fathers in the labor force has grown significantly since the onset of the pandemic in states where schools primarily offered remote instruction.”

With two million women out of work since COVID-19 hit, the trends of remote work, homeschooling, layoffs and economic slowdown could deliver “a long-lasting blow to mothers’ lifetime earnings and occupational trajectories,” according to Caitlyn Collins, assistant professor of sociology in Arts & Sciences and co-author of the study.

According to The Source at WUSL, researchers found that mothers’ labor force participation declined in several states where school districts became remote.

“According to The Source at @WUSTL, researchers found that mothers’ labor force participation declined in several states where school districts became remote. #workingmother #childcare #remotelearning”

“Across all states, mothers’ work attachment fell to a greater extent than fathers’, but the gap is widest in states, like Maryland, where schooling was fully remote at the start of the school year.”

Other research substantiates the effects of COVID on women’s careers, particularly women raising children in the home.

A Working Mother study released in 2020 shows that the effects of COVID-19 on working mothers personally and professionally are worse than those on men.

“A @_Workingmother_ study released in 2020 shows that the effects of #COVID19 on working mothers personally and professionally are worse than those on men. #workingmothers #workingfromhome #newnormal”

For instance, 21% of mothers with children 3-4 years old say they are not doing well at all professionally, compared to 9% of fathers with children of the same age.

The same study reported that 21-23% of mothers with children from newborn to 18 reported they are not doing well at all personally, while 8 to 13% of fathers of children newborn to 18 say they are not doing well personally.

When asked about the causes of their stress, Working Mother reports that 44% of mothers say it is their child(ren)’s education; 38% percent state they have increased stress because of the virus and 36% say they are concerned with their own mental health.

Claire Cain Miller writes in the New York Times that cultural, institutional, policy and personal shifts need to happen to repair the effects of COVID on working mothers over the past year. Flexibility is key.

“Long hours of face time and unpredictable schedules hurt parents and others even before this crisis. A lesson of this period has been discovering that people are happier, healthier and more productive when they have control over where and when they work — especially parents. There are benefits to offices, but employers could adopt hybrid schedules, allowing people to work some days at home and some days at the office.”

Miller writes, “At this point in the pandemic, mothers don’t just need time; they need money. They could use it in the way that best suits their family — for child care, tutoring or to support themselves during an unpaid leave. But few companies have paid for child care.”

NBC News reports that The National Women’s Law Center “found that there were nearly 2.1 million fewer women in the labor force in December than there were in February.”

“The Covid-19 pandemic has hit women's jobs the hardest — especially those held by Black women and Latinas — and blown up our caregiving infrastructure,” Emily Martin, Vice President for Education & Workplace Justice at the National Women’s Law Center, told NBC.

“In 2020, millions of women were pushed out of the labor force, which decreased their labor force participation to levels last seen a generation ago, in the 1980s,” she said. “We urgently need pandemic recovery efforts that recognize the gender impacts of this crisis and meet these caregiving needs by focusing on safe school reopening, investments in child care and paid family leave.”

And while many women are adjusting their career parameters, they are also more selective about where they will work, making the pairing of prospective employee to company and organization a more complicated process.

“While many women are adjusting their career parameters, they are also more selective about where they will work, making the pairing of prospective employee to company and organization a more complicated process. #workfromhome #COVID19 #workforce”

New Fairygodboss research found that over 25% of women are more likely to look for a new job since the start of the pandemic, and so creating a gender equitable workplace feels like a growing challenge every day. The research also shows, “Women, and especially women of color, are more likely than men to take a company’s stance on racial and gender equality into consideration during their job search.”

Keefe is looking to build her business of MomUp which is built on women with children building up their careers in business.

“Michelle Keefe is looking to build her business of @Momupco which is built on women with children building up their careers in business. #workingmother #womeninbusiness ”

“We are hoping to offer support for women in every stage of their career, with coaching, content, resources, webinars. And we want to serve the corporate clients with the best candidates.” She adds, “We want to bring these two parties together.”

Featured

About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com

Moms Facing Hiring Challenges: COVID Fallout, Flex Time Needs Reshape Work

Info

Action