When Women Left the Workforce: How the "She-cession" Exposed the Hidden Foundations of Our Economy and What Must Change for a Fair Future

In 2020 and beyond, millions of women stepped away from paid labour, not by choice, but because the system failed them. When Women Left the Workforce presents a sweeping, authoritative account of this dramatic moment: the “she-cession” that saw decades of progress unravel in just months, and the deep structures of gender, race, class and care that were laid bare.

Drawing on groundbreaking research, global case studies and voices rarely heard in mainstream discourse, this book reveals how the economy depends on women’s labour, both visible and invisible. It shows how caregiving has been treated as private burden rather than public infrastructure, how workplace cultures still penalize ambition with flexibility, and how emerging technologies and automation risk entrenching inequality unless redesigned for equity.

Readers will find:

• A historic perspective on how women entered the workforce, advanced and where the fault lines always lay.

• A rigorous examination of the pandemic’s impact on mothers, women of colour, working-class women and immigrants, highlighting how unequal burdens deepened the crisis.

• Insight into the invisible cultural and institutional barriers, mentorship gaps, hybrid work biases, algorithmic hiring, that persist even when laws change.

• A global lens, comparing how countries responded, where women fared better and what that tells us about political and economic systems.

• A forward-looking roadmap for renewal: policies, workplace redesign, cultural shifts and feminist economics that offer a path to lasting equity.

This book is for leaders, policymakers, professionals, advocates and every person who believes that the future of work must include everyone. It challenges us to move beyond recovery and build a system where women’s work matters, caregivers are supported, and equality is realised, not just promised.

When Women Left the Workforce is the essential guide to understanding the crisis, the consequences and the possibilities of a fairer economy.