Misty Heggeness Featured on CBS, Warns of Growing Inequities in Workforce Trends

In August 2025, Dr. Misty Heggeness, a leading economist and researcher with the COBRE Center for Biomedical Research Excellence on Women’s Health (BD-WH) and professor at the University of Kansas, was featured in a CBS News segment addressing the alarming rise in women, and particularly mothers, leaving the workforce since January.

Dr. Heggeness pointed to surging child care costs and the rollback of flexible remote work policies as key drivers of this trend. In her interview, she emphasized the long-term consequences of these shifts, cautioning that they risk pushing the economy toward what she called a “Ken-nergy” model—one that prioritizes short-term solutions over the real needs of working families.

“It’s not long-term solutions to the everyday lives of actual people and how we work in society,” Dr. Heggeness stated, highlighting the urgent need for more inclusive and sustainable workforce policies.

Her expert insights continue to inform national conversations around gender, labor, and economic equity.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/fewer-young-mothers-in-the-workforce-report-finds/