NY Times: As Layoffs Surge, Women May Pass Men in Job Force

Submitted by anthony on Fri, 2009-02-06 16:17

Article here. Excerpt:

'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, and in jobs that allow more time for child care and other domestic work.
...
Economists have predicted before that women would one day dominate the labor force as more ventured outside the home. The number of women entering the work force slowed and even dipped during the boom years earlier this decade, though, prompting a debate about whether women truly wanted to be both breadwinners and caregivers.'

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... women have it rougher when economic hardships befall a people. Why? Well, because they're women, first of all, and maybe that's all the really matters, but of course the second reason they have it harder is because their husbands/bfs may no longer be working and so they lose the benefit of the incomes from their romantic partners. Because, of course, a man's primary purpose in a relationship is to truck cash in the direction of his S.O. and if he can't do that, one should feel sorry for the woman first and foremost. But if there's any sympathy left after that, it's magnanimous of you to toss the leftovers his way.

Ugh...

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2009-02-07 00:16

I love the watch TV, sleep thing about men getting laid off. Maybe it has to due with the reduction of stress, men build testosterone by relaxing and women build whatever the hormone is, not estrogen but some hormone that interacts with it, oxytocin maybe, by talking and getting things off their mind.

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Submitted by Michael on Sat, 2009-02-07 00:51

Let the women finally put their money where their overworked mouths are.

Let them die younger.

Let them lose custody of their children because they were the "less involved" parent.

Let them pay alimony to men and be forced into slavery when a man decides he wants children.

Let them pay 70% of the taxes and reap 30% of the benefits.

Let them earn all the money yet spend only a third of it.

Let them die in the mines and in the factories and on the front lines, all while we tend to our own needs and those of our children, assuming we choose to have any, secure in the knowledge that a woman is our meal ticket for life.

Let women actually support themselves for once in the uninterrupted history of men being forced at spear, sword and gun point to support women.

They made their bed, now let them lie in it, preferably for the rest of their lives.

All of this reminds me of a pair of news pieces from the US and the USSR that I saw in the 80s. Women were required to work in the USSR as part of the socialist grand plan, and they hated it. They were bitching and moaning while openly expressing envy for western women who generally did not work. The American women were generally not working, and they hated it. They were bitching and moaning while openly expressing envy for eastern women who generally did work.

I give it about a week before this whole "women working while men do not" phenomenon is painted as being some big sexist conspiracy to exploit women.

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Submitted by RandomMan on Sat, 2009-02-07 06:32