It is a truth universally acknowledged: A woman with a family and a career is in want of more hours in the day. Despite this, conversations around gender inequity at work typically focus on a pay gap rather than the consequences of what happens when women don’t have as much time as their male counterparts.
In a new study published in the International Journal of Management Reviews, researchers analyzed 88 studies on the interaction between “gender, time, and organizations” in Africa. The researchers wanted to spotlight African organizations to understand how caregiving and other cultural expectations play out at work.
They found that the unpaid labor that women do at home creates a hidden time gap that limits their ability to get ahead at work—which in turn impacts training, networking, and taking on the projects at work that lead to promotions.
While the analysis focuses on Africa, the researchers explained that similar patterns exist all over the world. Outside of work, women do more of the unpaid domestic work, and they are expected to contribute more to their social lives. “Women are not falling behind because they lack ambition or ability. They are falling behind because they are carrying a second shift that workplaces still largely ignore. If we want real inclusion, we have to stop designing jobs around the assumption that everyone has unlimited time,” said University of East London business professor Toyin Adisa, one of the study’s authors.
Solving the time issue will take exactly that—time. “If we are serious about inclusion, we cannot rely on small policy tweaks,” Adisa said. “We have to rethink how work is organized and how care is valued across society.” The study offered some suggestions for how to even the playing field—most notably, better childcare support options.
The need for better childcare holds true in America as well. According to a 2026 Care.com study, parents in the U.S. spend 20% or more of their yearly income on childcare costs, and 31% are forced to use their savings to cover the expense.
Similarly, a 2025 Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report found that childcare for one infant is more expensive than public college tuition in 38 states and Washington, D.C. “Childcare is unaffordable for working families everywhere in the country, and it’s even more unattainable for minimum-wage workers and the very workers that administer childcare,” EPI research assistant Katherine deCourcy said in a press release on the findings. “This isn’t inevitable—it is a policy choice. Federal and state policymakers can and should act to make childcare more affordable, and ensure that childcare workers can afford the same quality of care for their own children.”
While most parents (85%) say that childcare is an essential workplace benefit, 1 in 3 employers do not offer it.
Regardless of how desperate families are for more affordable childcare and how much it could impact women’s career prospects, it still seems out of reach in the United States. On Wednesday, Trump told guests at an Easter event that the federal government won’t pay for childcare and that it should be left up to the states. “We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people,” Trump said. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare.”