How companies are taking more action to help women get back into the workforce

The Mom Project CEO Allison Robinson joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down companies are taking more dramatic action to help women get back into the workforce.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: We're going to turn our attention to-- we were talking about reflation and the reopening trade. But one of the things you hear some companies talking about is potential labor shortage going forward. Well, the Mom Project may be able to help solve that issue.

They help working moms get back into the workforce. And Allison Robinson, the Founder and CEO, is joining us now in the stream, because we're talking about millions of women who have the skills to work and need help getting back into the workforce. How do you come into this situation?

ALLISON ROBINSON: We're the matchmaker that brings the two together. We are a talent marketplace with over 500,000 incredibly talented and diverse women who come to us looking for employers that get it, who understand the valuable skills that they have to offer, both as a mother and a professional. And we connect them with some of the best brands in the entire world-- companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Accenture-- to unlock this tremendous strength in our economy in getting these women back to work.

SEANA SMITH: Allison, from your perspective, because we talked about time and time again here on Yahoo Finance just the challenge, specifically, that women have felt over the past year and the number of women-- almost three million women-- dropping out of the workforce since the start of the pandemic. Do you think we're finally making strides in the right direction, and more and more companies are taking notice of this issue?

ALLISON ROBINSON: You're absolutely right. 5.4 million jobs held by women were eliminated last year. Over 2 million women just vanished from the workforce. We know they were most impacted by unemployment furloughs. And then we saw our already fragile child care infrastructure implode in front of us, and schools shifting to be become remote.

I am optimistic. I think this has accelerated companies' true commitment to solving for these structural issues that have existed for decades. But because the situation has become so dire, companies are taking bolder, more dramatic action to help women get back into the workforce and retain the women already within their organizations.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Can you think of one or two companies, the names of which you could share with us, that are doing this well? Because it seems incredibly unfair on one hand to require a woman to pause her career when they have children. And on the other hand, companies need this skill-- this skill. Set so who's doing this well reintegrating moms?

ALLISON ROBINSON: They absolutely do. And we know 86% of American women will become moms by age 44. So it is the vast majority of the female labor population at the more experienced levels. A partnership that I'm most excited about is Accenture. I'm working really closely with a CEO over their Midwest region, Leigh. And Leigh has put together an incredible program to bring 150 women back into the workforce at Accenture in really coveted roles in technology and consulting. So they are really doing their bit to make sure that the Midwest leads the country in female labor participation, as well as stopping the dramatic backslide that we saw last year.