Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Gender Wars Fumble On….Economically-Speaking

by Jason Collazo

This is the 23rd month in a row now women’s employment has been at growth levels best described by one obnoxious term:  stagnant

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research, or IWPR, has measured this growth, or general lack of, in their updated fact sheet. Men are continuing to run laps around their female counterparts in any employment recovery whatsoever. This has been the sad case since the end of the “recession” in June 2009. 

The unemployment rate for males has only gone down 1 big percent:  10.6 percent to 9.6 percent. Meanwhile, the ladies are still scrambling to gain up on their boyish peers- 8.3 percent to 8.5 percent, not even a full percent. Yes, it’s still a move in the right direction, but not as strong as many feel it should be (this all based on reports by the Bureau of Labor Statistics). 

So what does it boil down to? Why is there this alarming break between the sexes? Take, for example, that most teachers still tend to be female. So when state and local governments make cuts to their staffs, women are among the first to go. The IWPR’s analysis of this data from BLS, as reported by Marketwatch’s website, shows that the government detracted 450,000 jobs over the past year. Of those 450,000, 304,000 happened to be held by women.

Speaking out, Dr. Heidi Hartmann, a labor economist and the president of the IWPR, had this to say:  “according to our forthcoming report, women--- particularly single and married mothers--- are taking drastic steps to cut costs and make ends meet, such as skipping medical appointments, and not filling prescriptions, not buying things their children need, and not saving for retirement.”

Drastic and very much alarming measures, simply to maintain a thought-out budget. Women might find themselves falling back on the payment of their mortgages (if they are the lone breadwinner of their household) or neglecting paying off their credit cards. These are behaviors that, too, can have disastrous consequences, as well as the ones mentioned previously.

The recession that juts out in recent memory showed that men had 33 months of “nearly consecutive” job loss and women were paired with “only 23 months,” (as per Marketwatch article). With the exception of the hard-to-forget Great Depression of our forefathers (and mothers), there is nothing that compares to that size of job loss in history.

This latest avalanche of bad job news comes right as the president prepares his much-hyped speech to Congress regarding the status of job growth. The speech is set to kick off 7 p.m EST. There has been much speculation about what exactly will be going on in this speech, including word of $300 billion about to be put aside for “job growth.”

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