Women Are Now Equal as Victims of Poor Economy

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin


Erol Reyal for The New York Times

Lisa Craig, standing, volunteers at the Milwaukee office of 9to5, National Association of Working Women. She hopes to draw a modest salary soon as a community intern.

By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: July 22, 2008

Across the country, women in their prime earning years, struggling with an unfriendly economy, are retreating from the work force, either permanently or for long stretches.

They had piled into jobs in growing numbers since the 1960s. But that stopped happening this decade, and as the nearly seven-year-old recovery gives way to hard times, the retreat is likely to accelerate.

Indeed, for the first time since the women’s movement came to life, an economic recovery has come and gone, and the percentage of women at work has fallen, not risen, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Each of the seven previous recoveries since 1960 ended with a greater percentage of women at work than when it began.

When economists first started noticing this trend two or three years ago, many suggested that the pullback from paid employment was a matter of the women themselves deciding to stay home — to raise children or because their husbands were doing well or because, more than men, they felt committed to running their households.

But now, a different explanation is turning up in government data, in the research of a few economists and in a Congressional study, to be released Tuesday, that follows the women’s story through the end of 2007.

FULL story at link.

[curious one]

1. Now women can't claim they are treated differently!

What do you expect with lower pay and treated as second hand citizen in work place, their losses should be even higher than men.