Working from home could erode women’s financial independence

– The remote work double bind. The Wall Street Journal had a buzzy feature this week on how women are “falling behind” in the return to office wave. According to recent labor market data, 36% of employed women were WFH in 2024, compared to 29% of men. While 34% of men reported working from home the prior year, the figure for women stayed basically flat. 

Of the biggest workforce changes since the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to work from home has been one of the most controversial—and career-altering. WFH was helpful to women, in particular, enabling many to stay in the workforce who otherwise may have been sidelined to care for children or other family members when the world shut down, a dynamic that’s been covered extensively here and elsewhere. 

The tension here is that while the flexibility may help women manage work and caregiving responsibilities, it can also come with financial risks. CEOs have made it clear they want to see workers in the office, not over Zoom. Women who stay home for whatever reason risk advancement and the related earning potential. That affects not just their future take home pay, but retirement readiness, overall financial independence, and so on.

Of course, the case can also be made that some women wouldn’t be able to work at all if they couldn’t do so from home; it’s an unfortunate reality that women are still primarily the caretakers in their families. Yet many also need to earn an income—in 2025, fewer families can afford to live on a single salary, regardless of what the tradwives are saying on TikTok. Working from home, even if it means less pay and fewer opportunities, is one solution for some. (It works the opposite way, too: Plenty are at HQ every day who would rather be at home, but can’t afford not to go in the office.)

But women have always made this trade off, says Connee Sullivan, senior wealth manager of Prime Capital Family Office. 

“The push to go back to work is really tougher for women, but the reality is, it’s always been tougher for women in the workforce,” says Sullivan. “And the C-Suite, which is still predominantly men, while they kind of acknowledge it, they’ve never really adapted to it.”

What’s interesting is that the gap between men and women who WFH has grown since COVID, according to the labor department data. Even though women may know their careers would be better off if they made it to their cubicle by 9 a.m., that’s just not possible for everyone. And surely it’s better for their long-term financial health to work how and where they can, rather than leaving altogether, even for a few years. 

For those who can’t afford help—or simply want to step back from the in-office workforce to spend time with children or any other reason—Sullivan advises “keeping your toe” in the workforce in some way, and trying to use the time at home to their advantage, whether by looking for local networking or mentorship opportunities, consulting part-time, or trying to gain other skills to enhance career marketability. In an ideal world, women could aim for a hybrid approach, which at least lets them get face time while maintaining flexibility.

All of this underlines something about work—especially the way that businesses traditionally think about it—that COVID and the great work-from-home experiment couldn’t fix, says Sullivan.

“It’s not fair,” she says. “You just have to accept the fact that it is going to have a financial impact. It’s the reality.”

Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com

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