Another potential factor is the opioid epidemic. Women have tended to be prescribed larger doses of opioid painkillers for longer periods of time, which often leads to addiction, or to use of stronger substitute drugs like heroin. Between 1999 and 2015, female death rates from opioid-related causes rose by 850 percent -- twice as big an increase as for men. Opioid addiction and the various associated health consequences almost certainly make it a lot harder to stay in the workforce.
So American women are in trouble from drugs and being abandoned by the government. Given this adversity, it’s a testament to American women’s grit and drive that even more haven’t dropped out of the workforce. The U.S. government needs to come to the rescue of the country’s women, both for the sake of the economy and -- more importantly -- for the sake of the citizenry. Paid parental leave should become a national policy, and child-care subsidies should go up substantially. And the opioid epidemic should be treated as a national health crisis. With a big effort, it should be possible to get American women healthy and working again.
Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.
This column was provided by Bloomberg News.