{"id":3564,"date":"2026-03-24T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/?p=3564"},"modified":"2025-06-14T18:58:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T23:58:38","slug":"mothers-concerns-about-covid-19-and-other-illnesses-keep-them-out-of-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/2026\/03\/24\/mothers-concerns-about-covid-19-and-other-illnesses-keep-them-out-of-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Mothers\u2019 Concerns About COVID-19 and Other Illnesses Keep Them Out of the Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2023\/04\/18\/lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-about-health-concerns-and-us-mothers-employment-press-release\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2023\/04\/18\/lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-about-health-concerns-and-us-mothers-employment-press-release\/\">Reprinted from the Council on Contemporary Families Press Release<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AUSTIN, TX \u2013 April 20, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A briefing paper released today from the Council on Contemporary Families<\/em>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2023\/04\/18\/lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-about-health-concerns-and-us-mothers-employment\/\">\u201cBetween a Rock and a Hard Place: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic about Health Concerns and US Mothers\u2019 Employment\u201d<\/a><strong><em>,&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><em>summarizes new research on how mothers\u2019 concerns about community COVID-19 transmission affected their labor force participation and suggests that such concerns may exacerbate gender inequality as the threat of new pandemics and infectious diseases rises.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an article published in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/23780231221138721\"><em>Socius<\/em><\/a><em>,<\/em> <em>professors&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2021\/02\/02\/daniel-carlson\/\"><em>Daniel Carlson<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;(University of Utah), <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2022\/01\/24\/priya-fielding-singh\/\">Priya Fielding-Singh<\/a><\/em><em> (University of Utah),<\/em><em> <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2021\/04\/06\/richard-petts\/\">Richard Petts<\/a><\/em><em> (Ball State University), and <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2021\/04\/06\/kristi-williams\/\">Kristi Williams<\/a><\/em><em> (The Ohio State University) <\/em>used data from 263 partnered US mothers who were employed prior to the pandemic to examine an overlooked reason why mothers\u2019 labor force participation was affected by Covid-19, independent of work layoffs, school closures, and other external factors. They discovered that mothers\u2019 worries about COVID-19 reduced the likelihood of their staying employed, and even when they stayed employed, led them to work fewer hours per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Carlson and colleagues also identified two key reasons why worried mothers participated less in the paid work force:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Children of mothers who worried more about COVID-19 transmission spent less time at school or daycare and more time at home.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Having children at home increased mothers\u2019 stress, constrained their ability to work, and reduced their work hours.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Since mothers typically take primary emotional and physical responsibility for managing family health, recent and future surges in serious transmittable disease \u2014 not limited to COVID-19, but including flu, RSV, and strep throat \u2014 may negatively affect mothers\u2019 job prospects and career advancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Carlson and colleagues summarize the takeaway: \u201cIf we fail to address mothers\u2019 concerns about COVID and other infectious diseases as they arise, current and future pandemics will continue to dampen mothers\u2019 employment and have substantial consequences for gender equality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FOR <strong>FURTHER INFORMATION<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To contact lead author&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2021\/02\/02\/daniel-carlson\/\">Daniel Carlson<\/a>, email him at&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:Daniel.Carlson@fcs.utah.edu\">Daniel.Carlson@fcs.utah.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>LINKS<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Brief report:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2023\/04\/18\/lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-about-health-concerns-and-us-mothers-employment\/\">https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2023\/04\/18\/lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-about-health-concerns-and-us-mothers-employment\/<\/a><br>Press release:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2023\/04\/18\/lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-about-health-concerns-and-us-mothers-employment-press-release\/\">https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2023\/04\/18\/lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-about-health-concerns-and-us-mothers-employment-press-release\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>ABOUT CCF<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/\"><strong>The Council on Contemporary Families<\/strong><\/a>, based at the University of Texas-Austin, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of family researchers and practitioners that seeks to further a national understanding of how America\u2019s families are changing and what is known about the strengths and weaknesses of different family forms and various family interventions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Council helps keep journalists informed of new and forthcoming research on gender and family-related issues via the CCF Network. To locate researchers or request copies of previous research briefs, please contact&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.utexas.edu\/contemporaryfamilies\/2021\/03\/04\/stephanie-coontz\/\">Stephanie Coontz<\/a>, Director of Research and Public Education, at&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:coontzs@msn.com\">coontzs@msn.com<\/a>, cell 360-556-9223.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow us!&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ccf_families\">@CCF_Families<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/contemporaryfamilies\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/contemporaryfamilies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reprinted from the Council on Contemporary Families Press Release AUSTIN, TX \u2013 April 20, 2023 A briefing paper released today from the Council on Contemporary Families,&nbsp;\u201cBetween a Rock and a Hard Place: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic about Health Concerns and US Mothers\u2019 Employment\u201d,&nbsp;summarizes new research on how mothers\u2019 concerns about community COVID-19 transmission affected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3566,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564\/revisions\/3566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}