"Mancession" - Is It A Myth?

Men account for three quarters of the 7 million U.S. job losses. That has led to talk of a "man-cession." With male unemployment rampant, women are on the cusp of a historic breakthrough "before the end of the year, women are likely to form a majority of salaried U.S. workers for the first time.

The novelty of the man-cession has been overstated, however. Delve deeper, and men have not been doing so badly by historic standards. Nor have women been making great breakthroughs.

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Comments

[jalowe1957]

Man-cession?

Like James Brown used to sing, "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's, Man's World..."

[MyTalkRadiou]

Obama needs to do actual reform instead of just talk & plan

good articles: http://br.st/tU

~~

[NeoconGal]

It won't really matter because the types of jobs on offer will be part time, low paying and with no benefits.

[Trueheart]

From what I've seen, when companies start lay-offs, it is more likely to be women who are asked to pick up slack by taking on additional responsibilities. If the average male worker is asked to expand his job description by 1.5x, then he expects a proportionate raise in pay. Women are more passive and compliant, and tend to break their backs carrying the additional workload with little or no increased compensation.

[BillLT]

I hope the dems can still have a majority in 2010.

hat tip to ; http://iamned4.blogpsot.com

The opportunity for change so far has been squandered

[FoonTheElder]

The reasons that we have mancessions is the reasons that women complain about.

When it comes recession time, corporations look where they can cut the most money out of payroll. Usually, if a woman makes 75% of what the man does, he's out and she stays.

Public accounting in the past 30 years has gone from a male dominated profession to a majority female profession (except for the executives). The same stubborn male chauvenists who once blocked women from the accounting profession have changed their mind when they found out that women would accept lower pay then men for the same work and also be less likely to skip to another job for higher pay. The higher the margin, the more that the owners make. They've learned to overlook their sexual biases for a more money in their pocket.

Another big reason is that remaining male dominated industries like manufacturing and construction are the ones that tend to get cut in a recession. Whereas industries with higher percentages of women, like medical, teaching and government jobs are cut less.

[Trueheart]

Foon, Really good comment that adds insight to the topic. You should have written this article.

[land2341]

Wow! Christopher Swan actually recognizes that this is a family unfriendly society!!! Kudos for recognizing what has long been obvious to women trying to juggle family life and jobs!

[drymartini1]

say what ?

i would rather live in a society where women MUST work for a living along with men. why would women want equal power but not equal responsibility.

[eXcommunicate]

I would like a society where either the husband or wife could stay home and raise the children properly instead of relying upon Nickelodeon and the X-Box to do it. A society where one income is enough to raise a modest family, giving the other spouse the *choice* of working or not. It used to be that if the family finances become strapped, then mom could step in and get a part-time or full-time job. What happens now though, when both partners are already working full-time jobs and the family's finances become strapped? There's no choice anymore. No flexibility. Only wage slavery.

[klbrz]

But women have more than just "equal responsibility." When she does work full time, it is her job that is expendable, possibly getting in trouble at work for taking time off when the kids are sick, etc. She is also less likely to get promoted for this reason - not as "dependable" as her male co workers whose wives take care of their kids so they can make work the first priority. When she comes home, if anyone is cooking dinner, helping with homework, cleaning, putting the kids to bed, etc, it's her. If they only had to deal with truly "equal responsibility," it'd be much easier.

[Trueheart]

Women have always worked for a living.
It's only a recent (and hopefully short-lived) idea that a woman should be a pampered little Barbie Material Girl whose primary responsibility is to look good and spend her husband's money.