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<p>The pandemic disrupted work across the globe. During Spring of 2020, many women left jobs due to disruptions to work and childcare, but we know little about how and why women continued to change jobs at a high rate into 2021 and 2022. With 30 in-depth interviews of U.S. women who changed jobs between March 2020 and December 2022, this paper contributes an intersectional, qualitative analysis of women’s accounts of job changes. The paper uncovers the mechanisms by which pandemic work disruptions caused women to quit and change jobs: women resisted employers’ reactions to work disruptions, and their accounts of resistance varied across social class and race. Mothers left higher-paying, professional jobs when management insisted on an “ideal worker” model that disallowed remote work. Many middle-income workers left work after realizing that their employers failed to reciprocate their loyalty and trust. Lower-income women of all racial groups left jobs due to increased resistance to overwork, low pay, and poor treatment by management. Three African American women quit after being extremely micromanaged when jobs went remote, suggesting unique experiences of “prove-it-again” bias. Women in higher-income occupations benefited more from changing jobs than women in lower-income occupations, suggesting that women’s unequal economic progress continues into the 2020s.</p>

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“Why Would I Stay Somewhere Like That?”: Resistance in U.S. Women’s Accounts of Job Changes

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月17日

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  • Karen Christopher

摘要

The pandemic disrupted work across the globe. During Spring of 2020, many women left jobs due to disruptions to work and childcare, but we know little about how and why women continued to change jobs at a high rate into 2021 and 2022. With 30 in-depth interviews of U.S. women who changed jobs between March 2020 and December 2022, this paper contributes an intersectional, qualitative analysis of women’s accounts of job changes. The paper uncovers the mechanisms by which pandemic work disruptions caused women to quit and change jobs: women resisted employers’ reactions to work disruptions, and their accounts of resistance varied across social class and race. Mothers left higher-paying, professional jobs when management insisted on an “ideal worker” model that disallowed remote work. Many middle-income workers left work after realizing that their employers failed to reciprocate their loyalty and trust. Lower-income women of all racial groups left jobs due to increased resistance to overwork, low pay, and poor treatment by management. Three African American women quit after being extremely micromanaged when jobs went remote, suggesting unique experiences of “prove-it-again” bias. Women in higher-income occupations benefited more from changing jobs than women in lower-income occupations, suggesting that women’s unequal economic progress continues into the 2020s.