[Marxism] Gender impacts of crisis

[brad bauerly <bbauerly@xxxxxxxxx>]

As Layoffs Surge, Women May Pass Men in Job Force By CATHERINE
RAMPELL<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/catherine_rampell/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

With the recession on the brink of becoming the longest in the postwar era,
a milestone may be at hand: Women are poised to surpass men on the nation's
payrolls, taking the majority for the first time in American history.

The reason has less to do with gender equality than with where the ax is
falling.

The proportion of women who are working has changed very little since the
recession started. But a full 82 percent of the job losses have befallen
men, who are heavily represented in distressed industries like manufacturing
and construction. Women tend to be employed in areas like education and
health care, which are less sensitive to economic ups and downs, and in jobs
that allow more time for child care and other domestic work.

"Given how stark and concentrated the job losses are among men, and that
women represented a high proportion of the labor force in the beginning of
this recession, women are now bearing the burden — or the opportunity, one
could say — of being breadwinners," says Heather Boushey, a senior economist
at the Center for American Progress.

Economists have predicted before that women would one day dominate the labor
force as more ventured outside the home. The number of women entering the
work force slowed and even dipped during the boom years earlier this decade,
though, prompting a debate about whether women truly wanted to be both
breadwinners and caregivers.

Should the male-dominated layoffs of the current recession continue — and
Friday's jobs report for January may offer more insight — the debate will be
moot. A deep and prolonged recession, therefore, may change not only
household budgets and habits; it may also challenge longstanding gender
roles.

In recessions, the percentage of families supported by women tends to rise
slightly, and it is expected to do so when this year's numbers are tallied.
As of November, women held 49.1 percent of the nation's jobs, according to
nonfarm payroll data collected by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/b/bureau_of_labor_statistics/index.html?inline=nyt-org>.
By another measure, including farm workers and the self-employed, women
constituted 47.1 percent of the work force.

Women may be safer in their jobs, but tend to find it harder to support a
family. For one thing, they work fewer overall hours than men. Women are
much more likely to be in part-time jobs without health insurance or
unemployment insurance. Even in full-time jobs, women earn 80 cents for each
dollar of their male counterparts' income, according to the government data.

"A lot of jobs that men have lost in fields like manufacturing were good
union jobs with great health care plans," says Christine Owens, executive
director of the National Employment Law Project. "The jobs women have — and
are supporting their families with — are not necessarily as good."

Nasreen Mohammed, for example, works five days a week, 51 weeks a year,
without sick days or health benefits.

She runs a small day care business out of her home in Milpitas, Calif., and
recently expanded her services to include after-school care. The business
brings in about $30,000 annually, she says, far less than the $150,000 her
husband earned in the marketing and sales job he lost over a year ago. "It's
peanuts," she says.

She switched from being a full-time homemaker to a full-time businesswoman
when her husband was laid off previously. She says she unexpectedly
discovered that she loves her job, even if it is demanding.

Still, her husband, Javed, says he and their three children — who are in
third grade, junior college and law school — worry about her health, and
hope things can "return to the old days."

"In terms of the financial benefit from her work, we all benefit," he says.
"But in terms of getting my wife's attention, from the youngest daughter to
our oldest, we can't wait for the day that my job is secure and she doesn't
have to do day care anymore."

Women like Ms. Mohammed find themselves at the head of once-separate
spheres: work and household. While women appear to be sole breadwinners in
greater numbers, they are likely to remain responsible for most domestic
responsibilities at home.

On average, employed women devote much more time to child care and housework
than employed men do, according to recent data from the government's
American Time Use Survey analyzed by two economists, Alan B. Krueger and
Andreas Mueller.

When women are unemployed and looking for a job, the time they spend daily
taking care of children nearly doubles. Unemployed men's child care duties,
by contrast, are virtually identical to those of their working counterparts,
and they instead spend more time sleeping, watching TV and looking for a
job, along with other domestic activities.

Many of the unemployed men interviewed say they have tried to help out with
cooking, veterinarian appointments and other chores, but they have not had
time to do more because job-hunting consumes their days.

"The main priority is finding a job and putting in the time to do that,"
says John Baruch, in Arlington Heights, Ill., who estimates he spends 35 to
45 hours a week looking for work since being laid off in January 2008.

While he has helped care for his wife's aging parents, the couple still
sometimes butt heads over who does things like walking the dog, now that he
is out of work. He puts it this way: "As one of the people who runs one of
the career centers I've been to told me: 'You're out of a job, but it's not
your time to paint the house and fix the car. Your job is about finding the
next job.' "

Many women say they expect their family roles to remain the same, even if
economic circumstances have changed for now.

"I don't know if I'd really call myself a 'breadwinner,' since I earn
practically nothing," says Linda Saxby, who assists the librarian at the
Cypress, Tex., high school her two daughters attend. Her husband, whose
executive-level position was eliminated last May, had been earning $225,000,
and the family is now primarily living off savings.

Historically, the way couples divide household jobs has been fairly
resistant to change, says Heidi Hartmann, president and chief economist at
the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

"Over a long, 20-year period, married men have stepped up to the plate a
little bit, but not as much as married women have dropped off in the time
they spend on household chores," Ms. Hartmann says. This suggests some
domestic duties have been outsourced, as when takeout substitutes for
cooking, for example. And as declining incomes force families to cut back on
these outlays, she says, "women will most likely pick up the slack."

A severe recession could put pressure on these roles.

"It has definitely put a strain" on my marriage, says Debbie Harlan, an
executive assistant at a hospital system in Sarasota, Fla. Four months ago,
her husband closed his 10-year-old independent car sales business, and the
couple have been asking their children to help with bills. "So far we've
worked through it, but there have been times when I wasn't sure we could."

The Mohammeds say things are not as stressful as they were the last time Mr.
Mohammed lost his job. He has been helping out with the cooking and with
paperwork for his wife's business, and she says she works to prop up family
morale.

"Things are not happy in the house if I blame him all the time, so I don't
do any of that anymore," Ms. Mohammed says. "I know he is doing his best."

-- 
Brad A. Bauerly
PhD Candidate,
Political Science
York University
Toronto, Canada
647-345-2072
bauerly@xxxxxxxx
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