Happy International Women's Day. We are observing the occasion with a deep dive on women in the workforce.
Between 2020 and 2024, women pulled off something economists didn't see coming. We survived the worst labor market collapse in modern history and came back stronger — hitting historic highs in workforce participation, starting nearly half of all new businesses in America for three straight years, and doing it all while raising children in a country with virtually no structural support for working parents.
Then one year undid most of it.
In this episode of The Tradeoff, we follow the full arc — the gains, the mechanism that made them possible, and the specific decisions that are now dismantling them in real time. Because this isn't a story about culture or ambition or women opting out. It's a story about math. And the math is not complicated.
We cover:
Mothers are the most productive people on the planet. It's time policymakers started betting on them.
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