A Man’s Recession? Women’s Equality? Could this be true?

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There is so much ballyhoo about the recession, the unemployment numbers and companies laying off but new statistics are arising. The view that the recession has been primarily a male based one with a whopping 72% of men being the recipients of pink slips since the recession began. WOW is all I can say. That is absolutely mind blowing. I guess it would stand to reason being that we still live in a male dominated society when it comes to the workforce, where with the cost of daycare many women choose to stay home and raise children until they enter Kindergarten. However now more then ever stay at home moms begin to reenter the work force, even being rusty in many cases with lots of time away from their last job or career and given skill set. Here’s the kicker, even with all of that, women are more successful at acquiring new employment then men these days. Mind blowing huh?

There are different times then we are used to and much like major tragedies in recent memory including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina they will change the face of our nation forever. These challenging times will influence our job work force, and may begin to skew our job hiring practices to actually provide equality for women for once, and not penalize them for their sex or desire to take a breath and raise a family. So maybe this a chance for women to finally make the strides they have been fighting for.

However despite how things might be changing, the more they change the more they stay the same. According to Fox News, women are still paid on average .23 cents less per dollar then their male counterparts, Mom's Increasingly Go Back To Work in Recession. I guess I can understand the “mommy penalty” as many stay at home Mom’s will have some rust on the wheels so to speak, but overall women should receive equal pay for equal work at least in my opinion. Now that men seem to be the parent du jour to stay at home while the women go out and bring home the paychecks, the proverbial shoe is now on the other foot. Maybe (here’s hoping) the previously male dominated workforce will be more equal and pay women what they so truthfully deserve!!! Maybe this is just the thing that is needed when people begin to realize that .23 cents less an hour adds up and is hard to live on with one income!

Just our .02! What’s yours?