By Naina Raju
This summer, while serving as a research intern with the Maryland General Assembly, I examined a 5.3% decline in women’s workforce participation. As I reviewed constituent concerns, policy proposals, and workforce data, a consistent theme emerged: many women are not stepping away from work because they lack ambition or qualifications. Instead, they are navigating systems that often make workforce participation difficult to sustain.
The reasons behind the decline are complex, but several barriers appear repeatedly. Rising childcare costs, caregiving responsibilities, limited workplace flexibility, and interruptions in career pathways can make it challenging for women to remain fully engaged in the workforce. These barriers affect individual families, but they also affect Maryland’s economy.
When experienced workers reduce hours, leave full-time employment, or delay career advancement because of structural obstacles, employers lose talent and communities lose economic productivity. State workforce participation is not simply a labor statistic. It is a measure of whether residents can realistically access and remain connected to economic opportunity.
Maryland policymakers have begun exploring ways to address these challenges. One example is the state’s cottage food industry. Cottage food laws allow individuals to produce and sell certain food products from their home kitchens, creating lower-barrier pathways into entrepreneurship. For many women balancing caregiving responsibilities, flexible entrepreneurial opportunities, such as the cottage food industry, can provide a practical alternative to traditional employment structures.
During my research, I recommended expanding cottage food product eligibility, increasing annual revenue caps, and exploring a tiered regulatory framework that would support business growth while maintaining appropriate consumer protections. While cottage food businesses alone will not solve workforce participation challenges, they illustrate an important principle: expanding workforce participation often begins by expanding pathways into work.
That lesson extends far beyond cottage foods.
Entrepreneurship is one pathway. Flexible scheduling, affordable childcare, employer-supported caregiving initiatives, return-to-work programs, workforce re-entry support, and mentorship opportunities are others. The goal is not merely to increase participation rates. It is to create an environment where fewer women feel forced to choose between caregiving responsibilities and professional advancement.
Maryland has already identified many of the challenges contributing to workforce disengagement. The opportunity now is to focus equal attention on solutions that expand access, flexibility and growth.
Workforce participation is not determined by talent alone. It is shaped by the opportunities communities create. Expanding those opportunities may be one of the most effective investments Maryland can make in its workers, its families, and its future.
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