The History and Politics of "Hecovery"
Over at Slate, Annie Lowery writes about the economic "hecovery:" Although male jobs accounted for the majority of layoffs during the depth of the recession, men have now pulled ahead in the recovery, gaining 768,000 jobs over the past year while women workers have lost 218,000 positions.
There's nothing new about the countercyclical nature of female employment. When the American economy lags, jobs in manufacturing and construction are the first to be cut, while the demand for service and caring-sector work continues, at least for a time, unabated--especially in the presence of government stimulus spending on education and health care. This pattern held true during the Depression; between 1930 and 1940, women's share of the
