It could take years to recover from 'Female Recession' or 'She-cession' sparked by COVID-19, researchers say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a massive number of women to leave the workforce.

Between August and September more than one million Americans dropped out of the labor force- most of them were women.

The sudden change has raised concern about what some are calling a "female recession."

As Northwestern Researcher Nicole Woitowich spoke to ABC7 about her research, she was Zoom-bombed by her sons.

Her latest article has to do with just that.

Additional childcare responsibilities have caused fewer female scientists to publish in biomedical research.

The article "COVID-19 Threatens Progress Toward Gender Equity Within Academic Medicine."

U of I Ocologist Shikha Jain co-authored the article and is mother of three young children.

The shift has been felt across industries with 865,000 adult women leaving the workforce between August and September according the US Department of Labor.

A report just out from McKinsey & Company and Lean In found that,"...one in four women are contemplating what many would have considered unthinkable less than a year ago: downshifting their careers or leaving the workplace."

Adding to the so called "Female Recession" or "She-cession," many of the jobs lost have been in industries during the pandemic effected more women.

What was termed the "Man-cession" of 2008-2009 took years for jobs to come back in some male dominated industries.