According to a survey developed by Catalyst, more than half of working-age women decided during 2025 to leave their jobs to dedicate themselves to other responsibilities such as childcare.

According to the survey results, some 455,000 women voluntarily left the workforce, and this is because, unlike in previous years, Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more companies are eliminating their flexible or hybrid schedules, requiring their employees to return to full-time office work, which is forcing many women to choose between their jobs and home responsibilities. The Catalyst report details that this trend has led some working women to seek more flexible employment. According to Sheila Brassel, research director at Catalyst, these women are not leaving their careers or jobs due to a lack of ambition, but rather a lack of options. Brassel points out that their data clearly shows that women are not abandoning their professional careers. “What we are really seeing is that this is a structural problem. Without the necessary support to cope with these caregiving responsibilities and such rigid and limited work schedules, women are forced to make impossible decisions,” she said. The researcher added that for most women, leaving their jobs is a difficult decision, but many are torn “between someone who depends on them for their care and well-being and being able to show up for work,” Brassel commented. On the other hand, the study mentioned that it is not only childcare that drives these decisions. Belonging to the “sandwich generation,” as it has been called, they must in many cases assume other types of responsibilities, that is, the care not only of their children but also of their parents. According to a study carried out by Harvard Business School, three out of four workers assume this type of caregiving. This has led them to leave their full-time jobs, and it was even revealed that many companies are currently offering paid leave for family care. In an analysis, Sparrow, a leave management company, commented that, “This suggests that employees are increasingly managing extended care situations—exactly the scenarios that, without adequate leave support,force talented workers into chronic stress and burnout or out of the workforce altogether,” it said.