Companies often assume that when mid-career women step back from leadership tracks, their ambition has faded. Our research suggests something else is happening.
The real pressure point is caregiving strain. Caregiver strain is the cognitive, emotional, and logistical burden of coordinating care for children, parents, or other dependents—and our research found it was the most powerful predictor of workforce exit.
Unlike other pressures, caregiving strain does not shut off when the workday begins: kids get sick, elderly relatives have bad falls around the clock. Yet most workplaces continue to treat it as a private matter that “doesn’t clock in” alongside paid work rather than a central driver of workplace outcomes.
In 2025, we conducted a national survey of 690 U.S. employees (354 men and 360 women). While both men and women caregivers reported similar levels of caregiving strain, women were more likely than men to report long-term unpaid caregiving responsibilities (83% to 72%), and thus were disproportionately shouldering more caregiving strain. Moreover, we found that caregiving strain, not ambition or seniority, was the strongest predictor of reporting burnout and exit consideration.
This was especially true for women in mid-level roles (managers, senior managers, and directors). Higher levels of caregiving strain was most strongly linked to increased burnout and a higher likelihood of leaving the workforce.
At this stage, job performance expectations are high, roles carry greater responsibility, and advancement depends increasingly on sustained visibility, availability, and informal networking. At the same time, caregiving demands tend to intensify—children require more complex support, elder care becomes more common, and financial and household coordination grows more demanding.
The result is a structural squeeze when escalating workplace expectations collide with intensifying caregiving demands.
Rethinking the “Missing Middle”
Organizations often misinterpret the mid-career gap as a lack of motivation or ambition, often assuming women lose momentum and become less committed over time. While there is near equal representation at the entry level, women only represent 39% of mid-level roles (senior managers and directors).
However, in 2025, the same period in which women were widely described as disengaging from traditional employment, women’s participation in entrepreneurship and self-employment increased. This does not signal declining ambition.
Rather, companies are losing high-performing women. This comes at a cost. Companies with more gender diversity have a 39% greater likelihood of financially outperforming and 73% increase in better decision making capabilities. If organizations want to retain their future leaders, flexibility, peer support, fair pay, representation, and sponsorship are not optional benefits. They are core systems of workforce sustainability.
That means rethinking how work is structured. In practice, this means rewarding productivity over constant visibility, building formal sponsorship structures, and expanding flexible work arrangements (e.g., hybrid schedules, remote work options, and caregiver-responsive flexibility).
The payoff is clear: 87% of employees report higher productivity in flexible arrangements, and companies that offer flexibility see higher engagement, lower turnover, and 1.7x faster revenue growth than those enforcing strict in-office mandates.
For companies, there is a clear takeaway: talent is not disappearing but being reallocated to structures that are more compatible with the realities of modern work and care. Mid-level roles serve as the pipeline to senior leadership, yet they are also the stage when caregiving strain often peaks.
When caregiving strain becomes the strongest driver of burnout and exit consideration, organizations need to address it as a structural workforce challenge instead of a private one. Only then will they be able to keep experienced, high-performing women.