The Uneven Recession on Men and Women

Several of my friends in my graduate program have been offered and have accepted positions, even though they will not quite be done for a few more weeks. I will not be available for full time employment for several more months as I am still researching and writing my Master’s thesis, but I follow such developments with great interest. It is reassuring to see that employment trends are still looking promising in my field, despite all the bad economic news that one sees on a daily basis. I want to dig a bit deeper than that though. In aticles in various places – often the New York Times (e.g. As Layoffs Surge, Women May Pass Men in Job Force) – that argue that the recession is having an uneven gender impact. Industries dominated by men (everything from financial services to automotive manufacturing) have seen major losses in employment while those sectors dominated by women (nursing, teaching and so forth) are, thus far, seeing very few losses.

I wonder why women-dominated sectors and professions tend to resist recessions better? It might be that such professions tend to be public sector and that sector is comparitively more stable in terms in employment. For Canada, librarianship is female dominated (78% female in 2004 nationally); perhaps the sector will continue to soldier on despite the recession. Last fall, I met someone in the field who had the bad fortune to have his first job interview on September 11, 2001 (having graduated from his Master’s program a few months earlier) and thus spent more than six months searching for employment. This person has now found a very good position at a consulting firm, so it worked out. That’s another potential positive aspect to the recession; it encourages people to think more creatively about employment (and services and technology; the 1930s was actually a time of substantial innovation in several sectors).

Perhaps more men should consider working in the historically women dominated professions. In my field, there is plenty of interesting things happening and new job postings are continuing to be released on a regular basis.

Added later. In reading today’s Globe & Mail, I noticed that there was an article on the uneven effects on Canadian men and women. In an article called, “Men open up like never before,” we see that not only are many Canadian men becoming unemployed but this unemployment is having significant negative mental health effects. This part of the article certainly sums up its main point:

Men, who are more concentrated in manufacturing and construction jobs, have taken the hardest hit in layoffs. According to Statistics Canada, employment for men between the ages of 25 and 54 has fallen by 170,000 jobs since October, four times more than for women. And unemployment can be especially wrenching for men, whose identity is often tied up in their work and image as breadwinners.

“You suddenly become kind of worthless,” says Malcolm Parrish, 54, a former General Motors worker in Oshawa, Ont., who was forced to take early retirement to avoid a layoff. “When a guy my age looks into the future and sees nothing, it is depressing.”

Related posts:

1. Canadian Libraries & The Recession: Guelph Public Library
2. It Has Computers, Gives Advice and Is Free (New York Times)
3. Job seekers continue to flock to libraries: USA Today