Women’s History Month is coming to a close, and while it’s important to celebrate the strides women have made, amid the coronavirus pandemic, women’s participation in the workforce has dropped to a 33-year low, according to a new study led by analysts at JP Morgan.

This comes as more women than men were laid off, and as many left the workforce voluntarily to care for their kids at home. But if women don’t regain ground soon, experts say the economy could suffer, too.

"What I think the pandemic has shown is that we’re often willing to put ourselves on the back burner and to allow our family to be on the front burner," said Marna Redding, vice president of member services for the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce and the Women's Business Council.

Redding, a mom of two, says her life changed drastically as she went from planning large-scale networking events to planning how to keep her then-fourth grader and kindergartener engaged in distance learning.

"I’m someone who gets my energy from other people and so in the beginning of this, when it was my little people and my husband," Redding said, "I was getting energy from them, but not in the same way I get energy from my work and my volunteers and events."

Redding is a planner by nature, so she happily kept the kids on a schedule, but knows childcare was a burden that fell on tens of thousands of women over the last year. She says this is a skill businesses should value.

"What company wouldn’t want a woman working for them who has that type of work ethic, who has that type of work style, who is willing to put their colleagues and the business in front of, maybe, their own personal needs?" Redding said.

Redding says that means businesses have to start thinking about what women and families need — childcare, remote work, and flex schedules.

Plus, being a mom is something Women’s Business Council Chair Emily Light says made her better at her job.

"I know when I became a mother, I became a better leader. I had to optimize every second of my day," Light said. "I really learned how to better empower and ensure my team members’ success from being a mom. It forced me to do that in a better way and a quicker way than when I had not become a mother."

Light also had her kids at home until recently, helping to manage not only their school schedules and her work, but a whole new team as she took on a new job mid-pandemic. While she made a successful transition, she’s worried about women facing career setbacks as the U.S. stares down another recession.

"There’s real concerns to be had there, and a lot of effort needs to really be focused on helping women get back into the workforce who’ve had to leave due to the pandemic," Light said.

Light says ensuring women are not only returning, but also coming back in leadership roles, is key.

"When you think about all of the benefits of having a diverse workforce, specifically, a gender-diverse workforce, there’s research that shows organizations are more financially successful, they’re more profitable, they have better cultures, if there is diversity in the workforce," Light said.

Both women say the key is businesses knowing and recognizing the value of women at every level, using how many moms, in particular, pivoted and juggled in the pandemic as a shining example.

"It was a lot and it was hard," Redding said. "And I think that for women, we are able to multitask in ways that set us apart, and I think that’s what the workforce focus on: Why women are so important in the workforce, and why we need to create opportunities to keep us there."