As I’ve stated time and time again, millennials know how to hustle. From the time we reached our formative years, our identities were melded into our professions. So imagine what happens when our merit is systemically attacked at a government level.
When the most recent jobs report revealed that 350,000 Black women had left the labor force, I resisted the instinct to call those exits voluntary. “I personally term that as being ousted,” I told the experts I interviewed, “because a lot of those exits were not optional.”
Behind that staggering number are women who are losing not only paychecks but also the stability, health access, and professional pathways that keep families and communities afloat. What happens next for them? Some are rebuilding through entrepreneurship, others are demanding systemic reforms, and all are navigating the intersection of workforce inequity and personal resilience.
The Maternal Health Connection
“Job loss directly translates into reduced income and potentially a loss of health insurance,” explained Fade Adetosoye, who helped lead a recent McKinsey study on Black maternal health and workforce participation. “That makes it harder for women to afford prenatal and postpartum care, medications, and services for conditions like gestational diabetes or hypertension—things that disproportionately impact Black women.”
The ripple effects are profound. McKinsey’s research estimates that addressing the Black maternal health gap could add $25 billion to the U.S. economy annually and save $385 billion in healthcare costs. Without intervention, Black mothers lose an average of 14–15 healthy days per year for the rest of their lives due to childbirth-related conditions.
“We’re talking 350,000 healthy years lost that women could be spending participating in the economy, investing in their families and communities,” Adetosoye told me.
Her conclusion is stark: “The gold standard for birthing people should not be survival. It should be thriving. And there is absolutely a tie between Black maternal health disparities and economic mobility.”
From Corporate Layoffs to Community Building
For Michelda Castro, the ousting wasn’t theoretical. She had climbed through finance and government program management roles, even overseeing a $69 million loan fund for underserved communities. But repeated experiences with bias, systemic barriers, and finally, layoffs tied to shifting federal priorities, left her searching for something more sustainable.
“I was stressed, having panic attacks at work, working 60, 70 hours a week,” she recounted to me. “They told me I was doing a great job, but when the director role opened up—the one I’d been running for nine months—they didn’t even give me an interview. Then they asked me to train the white man they hired instead.”
After another corporate stint ended in layoffs due to federal grant cuts handed down by the Trump administration, Castro leaned fully into entrepreneurship. More than a decade ago, she founded Versatile Image, a nonprofit that hosts the Unity Block Party in Utah, an annual cultural and economic festival that now generates over $100,000 in revenue. With the layoff, she focused renewed energy and focus into making the once side hustle into her full-time career. Still, she says the uphill climb is relentless: federal grants have been slashed and are continuing to be so, corporate sponsors have pulled out due to DEI alignment concerns, and banks remain reluctant to extend capital.
“If I were a white man, the struggle would be glamorized—like starting Amazon in a garage,” she said. “But when it’s a Black woman, people call it complaining.”
Systemic Barriers, Political Agendas
The broader context, says Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families and co-leader of the 75 Million Campaign, is that today’s job losses are less about performance and more about politics.
“When you lose a job not because of your work but because of a political agenda, it can feel demoralizing,” Frye told me. “And for Black women, particularly Black mothers—more than 80% of whom are the primary breadwinners—it threatens the stability of entire families.”
She points to the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as both a cause and a consequence.
“This administration has deployed a different narrative, but the purpose is the same as always: to erode the pathways that allowed Black women even a chance at the middle class,” Frye told me.
Her call to action: don’t internalize the systemic failures.
“This is not about individual deficiencies. It’s an ideological agenda. And we must push back—not only to protect jobs, but to protect the progress that got us here in the first place.”
Resilience, Redefined
Despite the structural barriers, Black women continue to lead in entrepreneurship. According to American Express data, Black women are the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the U.S., a trend likely to accelerate as traditional pathways constrict.
“I don’t want to just survive pregnancy, or layoffs, or discrimination,” Adetosoye told me. “I want to thrive. And thriving means being able to build wealth, plan estates, and contribute fully to the economy.”
Castro echoed the same sentiment, this time through the lens of her community.
“When I couldn’t find joy in corporate America, I built it myself. That’s what the Unity Block Party is—it’s our refusal to be erased.” This year, she was sure to lean in on the joy element by tapping headliner Durand Bernard, a popular singer that often weaves messages of self-care in his songs.
“I am so excited‚” Castro told me. “We need this happiness more than ever.”
The Future of Work for Black Women
The exodus of 350,000 Black women from the labor force is more than a statistic—it’s a referendum on whether the U.S. economy values their contributions. For Adetosoye, Castro, and Frye, the answer is to build new systems: of care, of capital, of narrative.
“Black women, especially younger generations, like millennials, are resilient,” Frye said. “But resilience should not be the requirement for survival in this economy. We deserve systems that work for us, not against us.”