The 3 Major Barriers to Women Reentering the Workforce

Women leave the workforce for a wide variety of reasons. Whether you left to start a family, deal with illness, become a carer, redundancy, or a sabbatical, making the decision to reenter is big – and can prove to be incredibly tough. With growing economic pressures pushing single-income households to become dual-income, however, it’s becoming a necessity. How, then, do you overcome the barriers that are placed in front of you when you decide it’s time? Let’s take a look at what they are and what you can do about them.

The Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap has been an issue for as long as women have been in the workforce. However, despite good progress in recent decades, it has only widened again since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in traditionally male-dominated industries like tech. 

While it can be hard to address such systematic issues by yourself, there are two things that you can do to avoid the worries of the gender pay gap.

First, shop around. If there’s not too much pressure on you to find a job quickly, it can pay off to explore your options. Similarly, don’t rest once you do land a position. Continual salary growth means leveraging your experience into ever-higher job roles.

Secondly, if available, consider contacting a union. Unions do a lot of work to ensure their members are fairly compensated no matter their age, gender, or any other personal factor that can cause discrimination from a workplace.

Lack of Childcare Access

Having children is a leading cause of women leaving the workforce, with most taking at least twelve months away from their jobs while caring for their baby (and that length is shrinking). However, children don’t just suddenly need zero care once they’re a year old – and if a caregiving mum needs to go back to work, the only options are family, nannies, or childcare. With family members having their own lives and commitments, and nannies being typically more expensive than childcare, childcare often becomes the only option.

The average daily cost for childcare in Australia is $129.15 at time of writing, with some areas being as high as $200. While some support has been rolled out in the form of the Child Care Subsidy, not everyone is eligible. This cost can mean that a working mum will likely see her entire weekly paycheck eaten up just by childcare costs.

There are some ways to combat this, but unfortunately they aren’t applicable to every industry. Remote work is the ideal middle ground, where a mum can productively earn an income while still caring for her infant. Many large employers have allotted WFH days, or are open to negotiation around WFH schedules. However, if your career involves more hands-on work, you may instead need to find a different compromise. Some women choose to go part-time, some fathers are able to negotiate WFH schedules while the mother works full time instead – it’s dependent on your unique circumstances.

Gender Bias

Another pernicious issue in the modern corporate world is a generalised bias against women. This is part of the reason for the gender pay gap we discussed above, but can extend its roots into many other aspects of working culture, especially in industries where women have not traditionally participated, like construction, tech, and finance. Women are obviously sensitive to this, and can spot when even a job advertisement is coded in such a way as to attract a biased audience. Like the other two roadblocks, this can be really tough to navigate. One small step you can take is to research the companies you’re applying to, specifically looking for whether they have women in leadership positions. This can be a clear sign that they have a lower gender bias, and you should (hopefully) face less discrimination in that particular role.

Reentering the workforce is intimidating, but women have always formed the cornerstone of our societies, and companies of all stripes should feel lucky to have strong, skilled, women on their payrolls. Until that happens, though, keep your chin up, put yourself out there, and remember that you have the skills to pay the bills.