The old story came back with a vengeance in recent months. Headlines everywhere declared a “she-cession.”
“Women are being forced out of their jobs.”
Democratic congresswomen last fall teamed up to write the Trump administration, expressing their “deep concern about the alarming rate of women leaving the workforce.” They demanded that the U.S. Department of Labor investigate the matter.
CNN warned its viewers in November, “Another ‘she-cession’ is rearing its head: Women are leaving the workforce at alarming rates.”
Then, on Feb. 20, with a lot less fanfare, a very different, and perhaps more historic data nugget emerged from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: In January 2026, 50% of all employed workers in the U.S. were women.
Yes, for every employed man in the United States, there is one employed woman.
Anyone demanding in 2026 that “we need more women in the workforce” is thus demanding that men become a minority of workers in America. Why a female majority is necessary for the economy or social justice has yet to be explained.
Maybe this isn’t so much about the workforce, though, as the home.
Follow closely the words of liberal commentators and Democratic politicians, and you notice the hunger isn’t for more working women, per se. They want more working mothers.
“We are clearly leaving GDP points on the table,” frets liberal economics blogger Jordan Weissmann when he considers the minority of American mothers who stay at home with their kids. It would be far more efficient if we were “reserving more child care for professional centers that can do it a bit more efficiently.”
Yes, many of those pushing to get women into cubicles are ultimately trying to pull children out from under Mom’s care and into the care of a professional funded and approved by Uncle Sam.
When Democratic lawmakers push for daycare subsidies, notice how economic their talk is: “I’ll fight for investments in our care economy.” You see, a mother taking her daughter for a walk around the park before making her a sandwich and putting her down for a nap, that’s not the care economy. Get with it, Mom! You’re leaving GDP points on the table.
Here’s another number to consider: The number of child care workers in the U.S. has grown by 33% over the past 12 years, while the number of children age 5 and under has shrunk by almost 9%. So we have more child care workers than ever and a 50% female workforce, yet the cries for more working women and more daycare subsidies are only getting louder.
THE DEI LOOPHOLE IN FEDERAL CONTRACTING RULES
The economy, it is sometimes said, is a hungry beast that is never satisfied. The “care economy” is just as insatiable. As long as one mother is inefficiently feeding and playing with her own kids, we are not maximizing GDP.
You’re letting us down, Mom.
