His Recession, Becoming Hers

[Starry Messenger]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/His-Recession-Becoming-nytimes-1477170526.html?x=0


It started out as a "mancession": Men's unemployment rates have been higher than women's for the last three years in the United States, as elsewhere. Now, women may be feeling more fear, if not more pain.

Their overall job prospects are lagging behind those of men, and they are likely to be more sharply affected by proposed cuts in federal, state and local spending.

Heather Boushey, an economist with the Center for American Progress, points out that since the economic recovery officially began in June 2009, private-sector employers have hired a net total of 503,000 men, while jobs held by women have declined by 141,000.

<snip>

However, women are more concentrated in state and local jobs that are now on the chopping block as a result of efforts to cut taxes and reduce public spending. About 52 percent of state employees and 61 percent of the much larger category of local employees are women - many of them working as teachers, secretaries, or social workers.

[leftstreet]

1. I've wondered how this might relate to the WI protests

...or blowback from public workers in general


Men have more of a tendency to disengage in the face of powerless. Get mad, get even, get out..but rarely 'get together' with others in the same situation.

Interesting article!

[Starry Messenger]

2. I'm not sure.

Interesting point though, I hadn't thought of it that way. :hi:

[leftstreet]

4. Heh

or I could be completely full of crap

:hi:

When class issues overlay gender issues, it gets interesting - if not confusing

[Starry Messenger]

7. So true!

Myself, I was thinking that these jobs were probably last on the chopping block probably because they are lower in pay than the "male" professions. I'm not sure though, I haven't delved into that too deeply. I'm sure the bosses would just love it if they could just replace us all with androids and then use us all like batteries a la The Matix to power the androids. :D Eventually they are going to have to deal with a unified and very pissed off class war.

[houstonintc]

9. It becomes a gender battle because...

Men are primarily in the private sector and women exist primarily in the public sector... solidarity it seems has vanished between the two fields of workers. Which is unfortunate as solidarity amongst workers in general has atrophied.

Thankfully it hasn't atrophied to much as we can see in Wisconsin.

[leftstreet]

10. Well, I wasn't characterizing it as a 'battle'

Just making observations about solidarity and responses to oppression

That's an interesting link below about the stimulus and shovel ready jobs. I remember some of that in the M$M now, but I'd forgotten.

[houstonintc]

13. Also I'd add that

Men did get together at the turn of the century and form the spearhead of the labor movement.

I think it has more to do with my genders concentration in the private sector and the rights effective war on private sector unions and labor.

[Starry Messenger]

12. Wisconsin gives me hope too.

There are stirrings in other states too. I'm hoping this is the start of an encouraging trend. Solidarity!

[houstonintc]

3. The stimulus was criticized as...

as being to "macho" and Obama did change it to give more aid to the public sector which was more female dominated then the male dominated private sector.

I think it was Hannah Rosin who called the mancession the "End of Men"... I guess she will need to rescind that bold proclamation.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Who is Hannah Rosin?

That sounds like a silly thing she said.

I don't remember reading about the stimulus being too macho. People I follow said it didn't go far enough, and I myself would have liked to have seen the creation of a federal jobs program out of it.

[houstonintc]

8. Total agreement...

Hannah Rosen or Rosin gave a TED talk and even wrote an article called "The End of Men".... reminded me of the "End of History" claims of way back when.

Anyway, yeah I think Obama could have done way more. Federal Jobs programs and way more infrastructure and shovel ready programs would have given us a much better shot in the arm.

Actually it started in the Boston globe in which the original shovel ready stimulus was criticized for doing to much to help the largely male dominated sectors of the economy back when those sectors were the first domino to fall economically.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/28/the_macho_stimulus_plan/

Several policy people noted and criticized that Obama did divest funds from the largely infrastructure plans and shovel ready projects into other, and in my less opinion less economically vital, sectors of the economy.

[Starry Messenger]

11. Wow, that article is awful.

I wondered what had happened to the shovel-ready plans, I had hopes about that too. We need much more of that kind of thing. Anyone with sense would also see that guys with immediate job prospects would be adding to local economies, which would have helped out the public sector too. We all need each other, the economy is like a human body. You can't just save one organ and let the other organs die and hope that things will be ok.

[houstonintc]

14. Unfortunately...

I think that was Obama's only shot.

We haven't had solid infrastructure work really since the 50's under Eisenhower. A lot of our stuff has since been in ill repair for decades if not poorly maintained since it was built now nearly 60 years ago.

I seriously wish he hadn't of blown it. The whole economy could have been structurally renovated around new greener infrastructure.

[Starry Messenger]

15. Same here, my friend.

I had visions of a heroic public works program. We have a willing and talented population who would jump at the opportunity.

[defendandprotect]

6. kr