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78 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. Online 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/waleelro78 and id is 1 raw text is: Working While Mothering During the Pandemic and Beyond Nicole Buonocore Porter* Abstract Although combining work and family has never been easy for women, working while mothering during the pandemic was close to impossible. When COVID-19 caused most workplaces to shut down, many women were laid off. But many women were forced to work from home alongside their children, who could not attend daycare or school. Mothers tried valiantly to combine a full day's work on top of caring for young children and helping school-aged children with remote school. But many found this balance difficult, leading to women's lowest workforce participation rate in over forty years. And even women who did not quit nevertheless suffered workplace consequences from logging many fewer work hours than before the pandemic. The exact magnitude of this toll, in terms of costs and careers, will not be known for years, if ever. This Article explores the challenges working mothers faced during the pandemic and sketches an outline of what solutions might have mitigated the difficulties during the pandemic and could make a difference in the lives of working mothers moving forward. * Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law, University of Toledo College of Law. I would like to thank the University of Idaho for inviting me to their symposium that prompted me to put some of these thoughts into writing. I would also like to thank Alia Kadri, a former student whose research paper in the fall of 2020 helped with Section II.A.5 on working from home as a possible accommodation for individuals with disabilities. Thank you to the University of Toledo College of Law for summer research support. And as always, thanks to Bryan Lammon, for everything.