Penna Dexter

I knew before I was a mom that, if and when I had children, I didn’t want to work outside the home. Still, my education prepared me for a career.

I went to college in the 70’s when feminism was taking hold. After graduating, I spent more than 8 years working for a bank, first in systems engineering and then in commercial lending. I think my opportunities there had something to do with the growing feminist movement. By the time I married, at age 26, I was earning a salary that neither I nor my husband could imagine giving up.

But, we did.

In 2026, professional opportunities for women are better than ever. Women and their employers find wonderful and creative ways to combine work and motherhood. Often this works well for both moms and their employers. Still, as Emily Griffin writes for The Patriot Post, “mothers are leaving the workforce in record numbers.” The loss of female workers is “keenly felt” in today’s American workforce.

Ms. Griffin points out that legacy media outlets like The Washington Post and Forbes, shocked by this phenomenon, “are doing their level best to scare, intimidate, or guilt-trip women back to work.” She cites Washington Post economics correspondent Abha Bhattarai, who warns young mothers that leaving their careers means they’ll lose out financially and demean themselves in terms of social standing.

For decades, feminism has held out professional success as the key to female happiness. They have told women we can “have it all.” But, a mom who left a corporate job is quoted deep in Ms. Bhattahari’s Washington Post piece, saying, “I choose to give my best energy to my kids while they’re little…it’s not weakness or submission — it’s power.”

Some moms diligently find that work/family balance. And some begin careers later. At 43, I began my work in radio that was flexible enough to allow me to continue doing the most important work a mom can do.