‘Exhausted.’ A year into pandemic, working moms see help on horizon.

For a year millions of working parents, especially moms, have been stretched to the limits by a stay-home swirl of kids and work. Finally policymakers may be listening.

The pandemic has produced a moment of clarity in the United States about a crisis that has been building for decades: The tradeoffs many working mothers routinely face are becoming unsustainable as the lockdowns reach the end of their first year.

Already stretched thin balancing the demands of work, housework, and child care, these women now face the extra demands posed by...