The Covid-19 crisis has reconfigured how we work, parent, and care for ourselves and our communities. It remains uncertain how a post-pandemic society will function, but already a consensus is emerging that the global pivot to working remotely will likely change how many companies think about face time and rigid work schedules.

Might the current revolution in how work gets done benefit women, who traditionally have been more likely to take advantage of flexible work arrangements? A recent paper by a group of economic experts argues yes, that the current situation will normalize remote and flexible work and will therefore make these arrangements available to a broader segment of working women. While we share the authors’ hope, we aren’t convinced that the sudden expansion of remote work will end up benefiting women.

As we’ve watched the coronavirus crisis unfold, we see many of the barriers that stymie women’s careers and lead companies to underutilize and lose their female talent (many of which we explore in our forthcoming book, Glass Half Broken: Shattering the Barriers that Still Hold Women Back at Work) become magnified.

We believe that many leaders may emerge from the crisis with a long-term talent problem if they don’t incorporate some small but critical steps into their current practices. By addressing four key biases and barriers, you can prevent the careers of your women employees from becoming collateral damage during this crisis, and set your company up to leverage their capabilities today and in the future.

We aren’t suggesting that you shift focus from mission-critical activities; cash flow, employee safety, and negotiations with lenders and clients are rightly your priorities. And we acknowledge that many leaders in essential industries are grappling with a different set of management challenges as they try to run operations that can’t be done from home. But for those who are managing employees who have transitioned to working from home, there are straightforward steps that you can take to win the loyalty of your women employees and keep your company from losing hard-won ground on gender inclusion.

[Here is the first of several recomendations.]

Pay Extra Mind to the Motherhood Penalty

Parents are now managing round-the-clock childcare while trying to meet deadlines, keep connected to colleagues, and demonstrate their value. This has intensified the already-outsized burden shouldered by working mothers, as numerous personal accounts and analyses have outlined. Being seen in a caregiving role tends to boost men’s reputation and elicit warmth from others but when women’s caregiving is visible it triggers doubts about their capabilities. Women with children are viewed as less competent and less committed than women without children and men, including fathers.

In a typical workplace, women can and do deploy a variety of strategies to circumvent this bias. Over the years, numerous women have told us about not displaying family photos at the office or minimizing the information they share about their caregiving responsibilities. Setting aside questions about whether women with children should have to take such steps to safeguard their credibility (they shouldn’t) or the extent to which they can (many, particularly lower earners with fewer childcare options, can’t), it remains that when women step through the office door, they have some modicum of control over how to navigate this bias.

Now that home is the office, even these provisional strategies are no longer available. Children can burst into a room during an important meeting, audibly and/or visually triggering the bias. A call might have to be ended abruptly because a child needs attention. It may not be possible to find a space free of reminders of parental status — children’s toys or artwork in the background, or interruptions from a spouse about a home-schooling issue.

Meanwhile, fathers may actually benefit when colleagues see evidence of their children (or the children themselves). There is a well-documented “fatherhood premium” when it comes to men’s earning power, as well as widespread acknowledgment that fathers tend to be more highly praised than mothers for caring for their children.

With your employees’ family status and family life now highly visible, it’s critical to be aware of these divergent biases toward fathers and mothers. As a leader, you can foster an environment where questioning women’s competence on the basis of their caregiving roles is not accepted. And leaders who themselves have children at home — whether they are a man or a woman — can be vocal and transparent about juggling their responsibilities and the importance of their family role. Now is not the time to encourage the ideal-worker norm — not only will  you look out of touch and callous for expecting employees to put work first at this time, you will entrench the gender biases that cast women as inherently less competent and valuable.