LinkedIn Adds Stay at Home Mom/Dad as a Job Title

Does drawing attention to the fact that you made a decision—if you can even call it that—to be a caregiver during the pandemic help you or hurt you? The verdict is still out.

By Tinybeans Team April 19, 2022

The pandemic did a number to many of our resumes, particularly those of us who may have had to step back from responsibilities or step down from careers in order to facilitate virtual learning for children whose schools shut down for nearly a year, and sometimes more. Now, LinkedIn is counting on a return of those of use to the labor force whose resumes look a little more like swiss cheese than they did before the pandemic. They’ve created “Stay at Home Mom,” “Stay at Home Dad,” and “Stay at Home Parent” designations for job-seekers—but the advice by experts on whether to use these options differs.

According to the Census Bureau, around 10 million U.S. mothers living with their own school-age children were not actively working in January 2021, an increase of 1.4 million out-of-work U.S. mothers than during the same month in 2020. And it’s not just moms whose careers have been affected, though they represent the largest loss in the workforce. In October, 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that 13% of fathers with children under the age of 10 considered stepping out of the workforce after the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

The pandemic—particularly the challenges that a lack of childcare for school-aged children whose schools were shut down—affected all parents. Fast-forward to today, when many feel that a return to work is possible with schools back in traditional, in-person session, vaccines and boosters available and declining numbers of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19, and you’ve got a returning workforce of parents wrestling with how best to explain a leave from the workforce to potential employers.

In order to decide how to spin the gap on your resume, it would make sense to consult the experts… unless they disagree. Some research suggests that parents may want to think twice before explaining a career gap in terms of their family responsibilities. In 2007, Shelley J. Correll, a professor of sociology and organizational behavior at Stanford University, where she directs the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab, published a report in the American Journal of Sociology entitled “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” At the time, her study “showed that actual employers discriminate against mothers, but not against fathers” when evaluating them as potential new-hires.

In 2018, UNC sociology assistant professor Katherine Weisshaar published a study in the American Sociological Review that suggested the consequences of temporarily “opting out” of work to care for family were equally penalizing for mothers as they are for fathers upon trying to return to work. In essence, the difference in a decade? Moms and dads were equally discriminated against for taking time off to care for family.

But 2007 and 2018 was before this crazy little thing called Covid-19. Certainly, life during the pandemic was unusual, and career sites like Linked In and Indeed are betting that many employers understand gaps on resumes in ways they never did, pre-pandemic. The editorial board for Indeed, a job site with over 250 million unique visitors every month, wrote in October 2021 “Balancing family and work obligations is something many people can relate to, so openly sharing your experience as a caregiver may allow a chance for you and your interviewer to bond.”

Executive coach Bonnie Marcus, author of Not Done Yet! How Women Over 50 Regain Their Confidence and Claim Workplace Power told Parents “If asked about the gap, my first tip is to not apologize. Be proud of the decision you made to opt-out for a time period.”

LinkedIn Career Expert Blair Heitmann agreed, citing data that 79 percent of hiring managers today would hire a candidate with a gap on their resume. And for those who choose to use it, LinkedIn’s new tool makes it easier than ever to account for the gap. “There’s been a cultural shift toward greater acceptance of nontraditional career paths and recruiters and hiring managers understand that people have good reasons for taking time off from their careers, now more than ever.”