Economic Recovery for Women Lags as Men Return to Workforce
The Great Recession brought the nation closer to workforce gender equality, but the recovery has the potential to bring mothers closer to the brink of bankruptcy than at any point in recent history.


June 04, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Great Recession continues to weigh heavy on working families. Just one day after Mother's Day, the U.S. Joint Economic Committee released a report called "Understanding the Economy: Working Mothers in the Great Recession." It details working mothers' increased role in the American economy and the increased economic pressures they have faced in recent months.

What was once dubbed the "mancession" for its impact on male-dominated work sectors is leading to a recovery now being labeled the "momcession." The original effects of this economic downturn brought nonfarm payrolls to near gender parity for the first time in U.S. history, with women holding 49.8 percent of all nonfarm payroll jobs in June 2009. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women lost 22,000 jobs from October 2009 to March 2010, while men gained 260,000.

The recession initially had a pronounced effect upon the male-dominated sectors of construction and manufacturing; 80 percent of the jobs lost in the first two years of the recession belonged to men. Dominating more recession-proof sectors of the economy such as education and health care, one-third of all working mothers with children under 18 became their family's sole breadwinners by June 2009. With many out-of-work, divorced men unable to provide child support, single working mothers have been challenged to make their incomes stretch farther than ever before.

"I can't imagine what I'd be living in if they hadn't helped me out," says Sara Wade, an Illinois schoolteacher who has had to rely on assistance from her family after her ex-husband lost his carpentry job in January 2009. She is not alone. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the recession brought a 39 percent increase in the number of people trying to change child-support arrangements in the tight job market.

However, while economic recovery is bringing unemployed men and stay-at-home dads back into the workforce, women have continued to struggle. Factoring in the jobs numbers from December 2007 to April 2010, women lost 46 jobs for every 100 jobs lost by men. By comparison, during the 2001 recession, women lost 17 jobs for every 100 lost by men, and only two jobs for every 100 lost by men in the 1990s recession.

"As job losses slowed in the final months of 2009, women continued to lose jobs as men found employment," says the U.S. Joint Economic Committee report. The findings are especially dire for single mothers whose unemployment rate climbed to 13.6 percent by the end of 2009.

Even women who have been able to hold onto their jobs are beginning to feel their fortunes change. Under-funded pensions and struggling state budgets are leading to potential pay freezes and a reduction in benefits, particularly for educators.

The Great Recession brought the nation closer to workforce gender equality than ever before, but the recovery has the potential to bring mothers closer to the brink of bankruptcy than at any point in recent history.

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