LinkedIn to Introduce Caregiver Titles for Stay-at-Home Parents

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A year into the pandemic that has severely impacted working women, LinkedIn is finally making strides to allow individuals to more accurately represent their work experience. Many dedicated caregivers—moms, dads, and grandparents alike—who have taken time off from paid employment to care for their children have long sought the ability to reflect those caregiving roles on their profiles. Now, thanks to the ongoing effects of COVID-19, stay-at-home parents will have the chance to update their LinkedIn profiles with new titles, including “stay-at-home mom” and more.

It took a global crisis for these changes to come about. LinkedIn is also eliminating the requirement for users to associate caregiving roles—such as “stay-at-home dad”—with specific businesses or companies, as reported by Fortune. A recent Forbes article highlighted the challenges faced by women who have exited the workforce, criticizing LinkedIn’s outdated options for representing career breaks. Alarmingly, 2.3 million women have left their jobs in the past year due to the pandemic, with closed schools and daycares playing a significant role in this trend.

Heather Bolen, in a Medium article titled “How a Simple Platform Fix Can Help Millions of Women Trying to Re-enter the Workforce,” emphasized the need for LinkedIn to address its implicit bias against women. She pointed out that there are currently no pre-populated options for various types of leave, including maternity leave, parental leave, or caregiving for elderly family members. “I’m left feeling disheartened and wondering why it is still necessary, in 2021, to manipulate a global platform like LinkedIn for something as common and essential as maternity leave,” Bolen wrote. She argues there should be no stigma in being transparent about taking time off and wanting to return to work, particularly in light of the pandemic’s impact on women’s employment.

The new titles on LinkedIn, including “stay-at-home mom,” aim to provide parents and caregivers with the ability to accurately describe their time away from traditional employment. LinkedIn’s team has stated that these updates have been in the works for some time, with the goal of normalizing employment gaps on profiles to facilitate more constructive hiring discussions. Additionally, users will now have a dedicated section to list employment gaps distinctly from the rest of their resumes, with options to select from ten types of breaks like “family leave” or “hospital leave.” They have also added a feature for users to specify their gender pronouns directly on their profiles, addressing a long-standing request from many LinkedIn users.

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In summary, LinkedIn’s new caregiver titles aim to give parents and caretakers the recognition they deserve for their time away from the workforce, addressing a long-standing gap in representation. As more people seek to return to work, these updates can help facilitate a more inclusive hiring process.