Here’s a New York Times article about the recession, which is approaching the longest since the Depression. By far, most of the layoffs are happening to men, 82% according to the article.
You might think this is good for women, but not really. The guys getting laid off are often their husbands. Sure, they’re still working, but in a two-income family losing one of the incomes is still usually a disaster. And besides, this doesn’t mean women are making headway in the workforce. Their numbers haven’t increased. It’s just that the number of working men is going down. And fast.
With the recession on the brink of becoming the longest in the postwar era, a milestone may be at hand: Women are poised to surpass men on the nation’s payrolls, taking the majority for the first time in American history.
The reason has less to do with gender equality than with where the ax is falling.
The proportion of women who are working has changed very little since the recession started. But a full 82 percent of the job losses have befallen men, who are heavily represented in distressed industries like manufacturing and construction. Women tend to be employed in areas like education and health care, which are less sensitive to economic ups and downs…
It’s possible, especially with older men, that some of these jobs are gone for good, and of course, there’s this.
Women may be safer in their jobs, but tend to find it harder to support a family. For one thing, they work fewer overall hours than men. Women are much more likely to be in part-time jobs without health insurance or unemployment insurance. Even in full-time jobs, women earn 80 cents for each dollar of their male counterparts’ income, according to the government data.
