Women May Pass Men in Job Force

The recession has effected primarily men in the longest recession in the US. It is not gender, but the industries that have taken a hit in the recession in terms of layoffs and downsizing branches. Here are the reasons for the surge in women in the workforce.

Manufacturing and Construction went under

The majority of men, that is 82 percent of the job losses came from industries in manufacturing and construction. Women are primarily in industries that are not as affected such as education and healthcare.

Concentration of job losses among men

"Women represented a high proportion of the labor force in the beginning of this recession, women are now bearing the burden or the opportunity of being breadwinners," says Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress.

Deep, Prolonged Recessions

When you have a recession which brings no opportunties for the job losses it took, it will give women the opportunity to become bread winners and perhaps leave the role of caregivers. The possibility of long standing gender roles. In recessions, the percentage of families supported by women tends to rise slightly.

For a limited time

Women may find themselves safer in their jobs, but end up finding it hard to support a family. Women work fewer overall hours than men. Jobs women take are primarily part time jobs with no health insurance or unemployment insurance. According to government data, women earn 80 cents for each dollar a males income. "The jobs women have and are supporting their families with are not necessarily as good as the union jobs men used to have with great healthcare plans," says Christine Owens.

Women who partake a job with a husband who has lost his job will end up accepting both roles of work and household. Women may appear to be sole breadwinners, but will remain responsible for domestic responsibilites. According to data by the American Time Use Survey, employed women devote more time to child care and housework than employed men do. When women are looking for a job, the time women spend taking care of children nearly doubles. Unemployed men's child care duties stay the same when their spouses are at work and spend more time sleeping, watching TV, and looking for a job along with other domestic activities. Many of the unemployed men interviewed say they have tried to share the domestic responsibilities, but have not had the time to do more because of the time used to job hunt. History has taught us that the way couples divide household jobs are fairly resistant to change, says Heidi Hartmann president and chief economist at the Institute for Womens Policy Research. "Over a long, 20 year period, married men have stepped up to the plate a little bit, but not as much as married women have dropped off in the time they spend on household chores," Ms. Hartmann says. As declining incomes force families to cut back "women will most likely pick up the slack."