Project 2025’s Childcare Cuts Threaten to Drive Mothers out of the Workforce

The Project 2025 plan proposes to drastically alter the structure of childcare funding in the U.S. by redirecting it from organized childcare facilities to in-home care. This proposal threatens to push many parents, especially women, out of the workforce, as they are often the primary caregivers in families.

Under Project 2025, federal funding would no longer support universal daycare options. Instead, it would prioritize at-home or familial childcare. The Project 2025 text claims, without citing evidence,“concurrently, children who spend significant time in day care experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and neglect as well as poor educational and developmental outcomes. Instead of providing universal day care, funding should go to parents either to offset the cost of staying home with a child or to pay for familial, in-home childcare.” In essence, the plan discourages parents, particularly mothers, from seeking external childcare, nudging them toward staying home or relying on extended family to provide care, which risks deepening gender inequities in the workforce.

For working mothers, accessible childcare is often crucial to maintaining their careers and supporting their families financially. By eliminating support for external childcare options, the Project 2025 plan would create significant financial and logistical hurdles, effectively narrowing their options and forcing many to choose between employment and affordable care for their children. 

Additionally, JD Vance has expressed dismissive views of professional childcare, suggesting that extended family, like grandparents, should shoulder childcare responsibilities, despite the practical and financial constraints many families face. Vance's past remarks also reflect his dismissive stance toward professional women, characterizing their career pursuits as a “path to misery.” 

As it stands, Project 2025 threatens to undermine decades of progress on gender equality and parental support in the workplace. By dismantling institutional childcare support, the policy would inevitably place a burden on families and limit the economic and career opportunities of countless women, forcing many to forgo their professional aspirations for lack of viable childcare alternatives.