The data analysis for last week’s WISER Wednesday found that child care was not the reason Black mothers with a bachelor’s degree or those with children under 5 were leaving the labor force. These mothers reported family responsibilities as the primary reason: 76.1% versus 23.9% for child care. The article that motivated this analysis did not report child care as the reason Black educated women were leaving the labor force. Black educated mothers were leaving the labor force because of a lack of job opportunities with commensurate skills (and pay). My reading of Prakash’s article is that the exit is temporary because not working was not financially sustainable.
While child care was not the primary reason Black women were leaving the labor force, it was the primary reason for Hispanic mothers with a bachelor’s degree or higher and children under 5: 66% reported family responsibilities compared to 34% for child care (see Figure 1). Therefore, any conversation about the economic consequences of child-care costs and access must include Hispanic mothers.
Figure 1. Reasons for not looking for a job: Bachelor’s degree or higher 
Source: Calculations by the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race using February 2019–June 2026 monthly Current Population Survey data; www.ipums.org.
Child Care Cost and Deserts
A U.S. Census Bureau working paper finds that higher child-care costs reduce mothers’ labor force participation, especially for lower-income mothers. UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute finds that mothers’ participation remains constrained by cost and by the lack of available care. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco finds that Hispanic women played an outsized role in the post-pandemic rise in labor force participation among prime-age women. BLS Economics Daily adds the federal context that mothers with children under 6 participate in the labor force at lower rates than mothers whose youngest child is older.
The Center for American Progress reports that majority-Hispanic/Latino communities had the highest licensed child-care desert rate in 2025, and the gap does not close in cities in the same way it does for other groups (see Figure 2). Urban, majority-Black communities are comparatively well served by Head Start infrastructure, but that advantage is reduced for rural Black communities and never existed for Hispanic communities in either setting.
Figure 2. Licensed Child Care Desert Rate by Community Racial/Ethnic Composition, 2025
Source: Center for American Progress, “America’s Licensed Child Care Deserts,” 2025.
Widening the Lens of Inequality
For too long, the policy conversation about women, work, and inequality has been organized through a Black/White lens, even as the country becomes more racially and ethnically diverse. Outside of immigration policy, much of the public conversation still behaves as if Black and White are the only groups through which inequity becomes legible. I am not arguing against analyzing the economic, political, or social inequality of Black women. I am arguing against using Black women as the reference group for every story about state neglect, labor-market harm, or policy indifference. That habit is analytically lazy, and it can also distort the data. When disaggregation finds a more complex story, we must be careful not to force the data back into familiar narratives, but instead shift to a more inclusive narrative.
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Rhonda V. Sharpe is the president and founder of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race. Her research focuses on gender and racial inequality, diversity in STEM, and the demographics of higher education.