Childcare costs and inflexible work schedules are two of the biggest barriers to employment for working mothers in Arkansas. That’s according to a recent report commissioned by the Ingeborg Initiatives and the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas." Maddie San Juan presented highlights from the report during an Arkansas legislative subcommittee meeting last week.
As Little Rock Public Radio reports, San Juan is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Women’s foundation. She quoted directly from the report entitled, “Holding It All Together: Working Moms and Child Care in Arkansas.” On Wednesday, June 17, San Juan told members of the Arkansas House Education Early Childhood Subcommittee that both rural and urban women, as well as those with and without college degrees, reported struggling with high childhood care costs. “We heard over and over again that the childhood costs are a workforce barrier. Sixty-nine percent of Arkansas moms cited childhood costs as a barrier to their employment.”
San Juan then cited one quote in particular from a working Arkansas mother. “One mom that we talked to her said, ‘I don’t really know why I work. My entire paycheck is going toward childcare.’”
San Juan also explained that inadequate maternal leave is also a major issue. “Twenty percent of the women in our study returned to work less than six weeks after birth, which is before medically recommended.”
And according to the study, the invisible mental load on mothers is real and unsustainable. Researchers concluded a flexible work schedule is the most desired workplace support for working moms in Arkansas.
Yet that same research points out that this is far from an isolated problem. Citing national data from 2025, the report revealed, “Mothers with young children left the workforce at accelerating rates, reversing gains made during the pandemic recovery.”
