While the COVID-19 pandemic affected people all over the world, it had an immediate and profound impact on women in the workplace. Women lost over 3 million jobs starting in spring of 2020, and while many of those jobs have been recouped, the National Women’s Law Center reports they are still more than 1 million jobs short.

Beyond the closing of businesses in retail, hospitality and like industries, there were other reasons why women lost valuable ground. According to Catalyst, of the countless U.S. adults who stopped working to provide care for their children, over 80% were women. And women were twice as likely to be primarily responsible for their children’s homeschooling. In fact, in McKinsey’s 2020 Women in the Workplace data showed that U.S. mothers were 1.5 times more likely than fathers to spend an extra three or more hours a day on housework and childcare—equivalent to 20 hours a week.