It's no secret that women have left the workforce in droves throughout the pandemic. In fact, the number of women who have bid farewell to their jobs is reaching nearly 3 million just in the past 12 months, TechRepublic reports. "Because of the added pressures of childcare, eldercare, homeschooling and Zoom meetings – which, more often than not, fall to female members of the household – the findings aren't a huge surprise. Recent data from the NWLC highlights the problem in stark terms: 570,000 moms have departed from the labor force over the past year," the article states. So how do we get women back into the workforce once the pandemic finally ends? The answer may be returnships, particularly paid returnships, since no one should be working for free. Companies like T-Mobile and Deloitte have seen success with their super-competitive returnship programs, culminating in overwhelming conversion to full-time jobs after the programs ended. While these initiatives aren't the norm at most companies yet, we hope higher ups will see the need for them and implement opportunities soon. (See Forman Pioneers a Path Forward for Women Returning to Work.)

While the goal is for companies to ethically diversify (it's not just a numbers game!) their workforces, if employees aren't satisfied with their roles that diversification is pretty pointless, says Fast Company in an article titled, "If the women in your company aren't thriving, your business isn't either." The goal is to build a work culture where everyone's needs are met and supported, both inside and outside of work. Since 40% of women in tech end up leaving their jobs because of "workplace culture," this is no laughing matter. So what can companies do to support a variety of different lifestyles and cultures? Some of the changes that have happened during the pandemic may be the way forward. From offering employees permanent flexibility in terms of where and when they work, helping with childcare, making mental health resources available and easing up on policies regarding time off, we may already be on the right track to ensuring that employees' needs are met and that they want to stay in the tech industry. (See WiCipedia: A post-pandemic restructuring opportunity for WiT.)

Plenty of critics have strong opinions on how the shift back to in-office work will affect women in tech as well. An article, titled "It's not their job to buy you cake," explains that the way tech companies have created a culture full of perks and extras that tie employees not directly to their work but to a sort of expected set of cultural interactions that have little to do with work isn't fair. Cathy Merrill, CEO and owner of Washingtonian Media (i.e., The Washington Post), recently came under fire for saying that "'20% of every office job' is devoted to creating and sustaining office 'culture,'" and that she was worried about employees wanting to continue to work from home after the pandemic is over. She further opined that if employees wouldn't be partaking in in-person office interactions, they were much more like contractors than employees, despite holding the same schedule and workload. Shortsighted much? (See WiCipedia: Nature vs. Nurture & the Moms at Work Dilemma.)

— Eryn Leavens, Special Features & Copy Editor, Light Reading. Follow us on Twitter @LR_WiC and contact Eryn directly at [email protected].