Misty L. Heggeness predicts employers will eventually backtrack on return-to-office policies. | Photo by Jeffery Burkhead.
Scores of women, especially mothers with young children, left the workforce in the first half of 2025 while tens of thousands of men entered it. Today, we’re talking with Misty L. Heggeness, an associate professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Kansas and author of the upcoming book SWIFTYNOMICS: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy, to explain the exodus.
What are your biggest takeaways from the recent jobs report in regards to women in the workforce? I usually look at the overall rate for women in addition to the rate for Black women. Black women labor force participation can often be seen as a canary in the coal mine. If their numbers start to go down, we should be worried about declining trends for other women as well. I did my own analysis of changes in the first six months of 2025 for mothers aged 25 to 44 with children under the age of 5 compared to fathers aged 25 to 44 with children under the age of 5. Here, I saw a 3 percentage point decrease for mothers relative to a 1 percentage point increase for fathers, implying that even if the overall numbers are not changing much, there is much variation among different subgroups.
More women are exiting careers as companies sunset hybrid or remote work policies and childcare costs rise. Do you see this trend in workforce participation reversing anytime soon? I actually think mothers will readjust. We saw a large exodus from the workforce in the first half of 2025, but parents usually figure out how to readjust, and employers will realize the loss of talented employees and probably start to loosen return-to-office policies.
What other factors are driving women, especially those in upper leadership roles, to leave the workforce? That is a great question. At the University of Kansas, we surveyed over 300 women for my upcoming book, SWIFTYNOMICS: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy. The No. 1 reason for changing jobs had to do with boredom or a lack of ability to grow and flourish. Employers today need to be nimble because their workers are more educated than ever before and are looking for fulfillment, meaning, and growth at work.
Do you think women are reconsidering what “success” looks like? I think we are always reconsidering what success looks like every day. Women will stay attached to the labor market when they need the resources, are passionate about the work, and have a sense of belonging. All these factors drive what women (and men) see as success in the workplace.
For many women, leaving the workforce provides space to reevaluate how they spend their time. But others can’t afford to make that choice. What’s the solution for them? There is power in numbers. Women succeed most when they really lean in to their networks, talk to one another continuously, and use their friends, neighbors, family and colleagues for feedback and understanding. We are stronger together. While the back-to-office “Kenergy” might be strong right now, I do not expect it to last.
The Trump administration wants women to have more children. Do you see its attacks on DEI and making federal work less flexible as part of some long play to push women out of the workforce? I have no idea, but if that is the strategy, it will backfire. The solution to encouraging families to have more children is simple: Create policies, programs, and infrastructure that make it feasible and viable to have children, a decent household income, and the ability to contribute one's talent outside the home if one chooses.
We’ll reconnect with Heggeness in the coming months to discuss her upcoming book, SWIFTYNOMICS: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy.
— Story by Cambrie Juarez
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