More Women May Become Main Breadwinners in US

An article in yesterday's New York Times suggests that women may come to dominate the United States workforce during this recession.

The driving force behind the shifting proportion is the fact that 82 per cent of recent job losses have befallen men, who are more heavily represented in distressed industries such as manufacturing and construction. Women, on the other hand, tend to be employed in areas such education and health care, which are less sensitive to economic ups and downs.

The article quotes Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress who says: “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.”