They are trained, ready to work and could help fill some of the workforce shortages, but many are staying home.
Women with young children could be key to plugging some of the gaps, but the cost of child care means there is no financial benefit for many to return to work full time.
Now there are growing calls for further support to be expedited.
The federal government will provide higher childcare subsidies for more families from July next year, but advocacy groups and unions want those changes brought forward and are ramping up pressure ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit later this week.
Under the proposed changes, families with an income of $80,000 will receive a 90 per cent subsidy for their first child.
The subsidy will decline as income increases, with every family earning up to $530,000 eligible for some level of support.
Thrive By Five director Jay Weatherill said the changes should come into place from January.
"Cost of living pressures are worse, workforce shortage issues are worse," he said.
"The pre-condition for solving our workforce shortage problem is to actually sort out our childcare system."
Chief Executive Women (CEW), which represents hundreds of women in leadership roles that oversee more than 1.3 million employees, also want the support brought forward.
Non-executive director Sue Morphet said it would incentivise more women to go back to work and help address the skills shortage.
"If we can release the highly talented women who are skilled, experienced and well educated back into the workforce...then we would be able to reduce some of the anxieties that businesses have at the moment," she said.
CEW's call is backed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions president, Michele O'Neil, who said change is "urgently" needed.
"Women are locked out of the labour market. Over 116,000 women couldn't work at all last year because they couldn't get any support with caring for children and others," she said.
"Often employers look overseas to bring in workers [but] we have this ready workforce in Australia who want to work but can't because they can't get access to child care."
Childcare costs prevented Canberra mum and public servant Marianne from working full time after her first child Ziggy was born.
"When I went back to work, it wasn't financially viable to go back more than three days," she said.
"I spent many years investing in my career and I didn't want to take years out of the workforce losing my skills and all the super I would accumulate during that time."
She is currently on maternity leave with her second child and said under the current arrangements it would not be possible for her to work the hours she wants and afford child care.
"We did a childcare subsidy calculator online and if we were sending her now it was astronomically expensive … we would probably work part time," she said.
Marianne will be better off once the changes come into place next year, but said she was lucky she did not have to try and juggle the household finances and work right now.
"I really feel for people at the moment … they are making the impossible choice of whether to keep their career going and pay huge costs for child care or stay at home with their children," she said.
An independent report issued earlier this year found if Australia halved the current gap in participation rates and hours of paid work between men and women, there would be an additional 500,000 full-time equivalent workers.
Advocacy groups and unions have repeated their calls for the government to work quickly towards universal childcare.
Ms Morphet said it should be seen as economic reform and not welfare.
"It enables a freedom of choice that isn't there at the moment," she said.
"It means for business that the best of Australian talent is on offer and available, rather than half Australia's talent or two-thirds of Australia's talent being on offer and available part time or full time."
Child care can help close pay gap
Another key issue to be addressed at the Jobs and Skills Summit this week is the gender pay gap, and advocacy groups believe child care could provide a path to closing it.
The gender pay gap has increased to 14.1 per cent over the past six months and Ms Morphet said if the barriers to re-enter the workforce were reduced, women could have more career opportunities sooner, along with long-term benefits like stronger super balances.
"We know these early childhood education and care reforms will make a significant difference to women being able to close the gap and develop their own sense of financial security and wellbeing as they move through their life," she said.
Australia is one of the most educated nations in the world, but the nation ranks 70th for female economic participation in the World Economic Forum's global gender gap index.
"[Child care] is such a key part of delivering gender equity … that we lift women's participation in work and give them all the support that we need to do that," Ms O'Neil said.
Government says money a key issue
The federal government has repeatedly suggested the cost of bringing the childcare policy forward is too great, but Treasurer Jim Chalmers opened the door slightly last week.
"Obviously we're up for a conversation about that, like we are across all of these other issues," he told RN Breakfast.
"But we need to be conscious of the budget constraints, the fact that we have a trillion dollars in debt and it would cost a substantial amount to bring it forward."
Ahead of the federal election, Labor said it would invest $5.4 billion in child care, and conservative estimates showed a return on investment of $2 for every $1 invested.
The Treasury Department said it could not provide comment on costings of the policy because it is "under consideration for the October 2022-23 budget".
Ms O'Neil argued getting more women back in the workforce sooner would help the budget bottom line.
"If we lift women's workforce participation … then that money goes back into the economy, those women pay tax, there's an advantage overall in economic terms if we have more women working," she said.
Mr Weatherill has also urged the government to think long term.
"We need to realise the costs associated with not making this investment completely eclipse any of the budget costs, and it's a relatively small budget cost," he said.
"These measures pay for themselves [in terms of] costs avoided, the productivity released into the broader economy, and building the capability of our younger citizens."
Sector still combating workforce shortages
The cost of child care is just one element of the puzzle, with more staff needed in early child care to meet demand.
Early childhood teachers are listed among the top 10 in-demand professions over the next five years and Mr Weatherill said part of the problem was that staff were not staying in the profession long term.
"When you have people choosing to shift out of early childhood and into retail because the wages and conditions are better, you know you've got a problem," he said.
Unions want wages lifted and that has the support of CEW's Sue Morphet.
"If we had an immediate 10 per cent increase to the salaries of the childcare workers, that would make it a bit more beneficial for them to stay," she said.
The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority estimates an extra 39,000 early educators are needed by next year to keep with demand.
Some state governments are already introducing new policies to make childcare free for certain age groups but there are concerns about where the extra staff will be found.
