The Gender-Bending Recession

Are men opting in--at home? Maybe, but mostly because they have little choice, and they're not altogether happy about it. That was the gist of a story the other day in the New York Times--based, it appears, on a somewhat sturdier foundation than the paper's claim a few years ago that upper middle-class women had embarked on an "Opt Out Revolution," fleeing the rigors of the corporate boardroom for the joys of the kids' playroom.

As noted in my previous post on gender and unemployment, the current recession is hitting men hard--they've lost four out of every five jobs in the downturn. Studies from past recessions have found that laid-off men are not nearly as likely as women to spend their newfound free time with their children, and in fact, they often end up spending even less time with the kids than they did while they were employed. It's quite possible that, overall, this pattern still holds. The Mr. Moms of Westchester County may be a fascinating subculture but a statistical anomaly. We don't yet know.

But there are some signs that the dynamics may have shifted. In addition to the grim stats about lost jobs, each month brings new numbers that show how many people are dropping out of the labor force completely. And what's interesting is that, unlike in past recessions, when laid-off women were much more likely than men to stop looking for work and turn to caregiving and other pursuits, men and women have been quitting the labor force in roughly equal numbers. As this Forbes.com column notes, "the increase in the number of women dropping out from December 2007 to March 2009 was 38%. The increase in the number of men dropping out was 90%." That's pretty striking. Over at Slate last month, Emily Bazelon collected some tantalizing anecdotes suggesting that this time round, jobless men (or at least a "significant minority" of them) are pitching in at home.

The point is not that the "he-cession" is going to usher in a long-awaited feminist domestic revolution by decimating the ranks of employed men. Indeed, the "shame" and "pain" expressed by the newly-minted stay-home Dads suggest that we have a long way to go. But there is the hope that, when better times return, the habits and bonds forged during this gender-bending recession will endure.

Comments (27)

1. The much anticipated but institutionally resisted paradigm shift in our macro-developmental sensibilities has been accelerated by the hyper narcissistic greed and accumulative pathos that represents capitalism at it's red-line. The male hierarchy presumes to dominate, to fixate, to win at all costs... subduing as a matter of course the entire biosphere... before ever considering its fragility.

   In a word... unsustainable.

   Shifting our attention away from peak output objectives... while crucial and necessary for culture wide quality of life issues, correcting planetary bio-imbalances, and pursuing renewable energy re-industrialization... suddenly... and without any premeditation to speak of (the prez wuz campaigning, and the dub was oblivious)...

   ...has created a most uncomfortable economic 'adjustment' that most of us were not prepared for... no matter HOW badly we wanted it...:^)

   Yeah... sure... we had maxed everything out... and were living beyond our means... using the leverage techniques that 'trickled down' from 'on high'... because it was our only hope. To remain competitive and viable in our dog eat dog ethos 'codex', we are prone to using all the tools available to us... for maximum personal advantage... just to stay in the game.

   And... when the market collapses as the bubble inevitably bursts... the people who pay the highest price are the humble, the weak, the meek... the artists and musicians... the small businesses, and the honest working people of this great country. Every time.

   Over and over and over again.

   We're grownups now. Its time to stop blowing bubbles and bursting balloons. We've got to make livable lives the rule... not the exception to the cruel rule of the lobbiocracy...;^)

   Posted by ttr at 04/25/2009 @ 02:11am

2. I work from home while my wife leaves the house to work. I feel no "shame" or "pain" and I can't understand why anybody would. Yes there is competition in the marketplace - get used to it or go live in the boondocks in the "non-cash" economy. Grow your own food, wear long skirts and birkenstocks, buy that old series of books on how to skin your own buffalo. Hey, do what makes you happy! If you don't want to work and your wife does, why complain? If you can't make as much as you made before, get over it! I am tired of all this bellyaching.

   Posted by jsens at 04/25/2009 @ 08:51am

3. so I end up doing about 40% of our housework.

   so waddaya want, a medal?

   Posted by emile duBois at 04/25/2009 @ 08:54am

4. If you can't make as much as you made before, get over it! I am tired of all this bellyaching. Posted by jsens at 04/25/2009 @ 08:51am | ignore this person | warn this person

   this blase attitude comes off as callous. making 30% less, while your expenses stay the same, or increase, is a recipe for unhappiness, or worse.

   Posted by emile duBois at 04/25/2009 @ 09:11am

5. by snowball666 at 04/25/2009 @ 07:58am...

   Good point...

   Though the current crises have illustrated the still somewhat latent gender biases we are carrying around... I'm not so sure that our equanimical destination is enhanced by our present predicaments.

   Men need to 'get current'... and educate themselves... independently developing a 'post FOX' awareness of our actual national and global conditions...

   But all of us... men and women... have been engaging in the root causes and behaviors of quasi-fascism... with its backward leaning tendencies, its prerequisites of sadistic drama, and its resistance to compassionate leadership in government...

   We can do SO much better!

   When goodness rules the human experience... all kind preferences are possible and preferred.

   Posted by ttr at 04/25/2009 @ 09:11am

6. -- I am tired of all this bellyaching.--

   by jsens at 04/25/2009 @ 08:51am...

   You must not have read your own post...;^)

   Equating an attempt to stabilize and evolve our human 'situation' on a global scale to the betterment of all mankind...

   ...to a backwoods escapist mentality can only be the work of a sociopath.

   ...or a partisan troll... (what's da diff?...:^))

   Posted by ttr at 04/25/2009 @ 09:21am

7. It's a conspiracy! Some evil demonic pact between those corporate devils, (most likely the Bilderberg Group or some rogue faction of the Freemasons) and the Women of America.

   With the payoff for the "corporate devils", being the final thrust at killing off the middle class. For the "Women of America", it is their vision of victory in the class struggle between sexes. And the final emasculation of men.

   After months of domestic chores men lose their will to fight back against either their corporate masters or their mates. The new world order will commence.

   Wake up men! Refuse to knuckle under to this dual threat! Hit the streets and protest! And when your not protesting, sit around the house in your underwear, drink beer and play video games!.

   Don't let yourself be castrated by this evil plot. Next thing you know you will be browsing a Vitoria's Secret catalogue to actually buy something.. for yourself!!!

   Beware!

   Posted by chaoszen at 04/25/2009 @ 09:31am

8. It's a conspiracy! Some evil demonic pact between those corporate devils, (most likely the Bilderberg Group or some rogue faction of the Freemasons) and the Women of America.

   With the payoff for the "corporate devils", being the final thrust at killing off the middle class. For the "Women of America", it is their vision of victory in the class struggle between sexes. And the final emasculation of men.

   After months of domestic chores men lose their will to fight back against either their corporate masters or their mates. The new world order will commence.

   Wake up men! Refuse to knuckle under to this dual threat! Hit the streets and protest! And when your not protesting, sit around the house in your underwear, drink beer and play video games!.

   Don't let yourself be castrated by this evil plot. Next thing you know you will be browsing a Vitoria's Secret catalogue to actually buy something.. for yourself!!!

   Beware!

   Posted by chaoszen at 04/25/2009 @ 09:31am

9. See! The proof is in my post. It was posted twice to cheapen my message. And at the same time someone stole the "c" out of Victoria's in order to undermine my credibilty.

   Conspiracy!

   Posted by chaoszen at 04/25/2009 @ 10:25am

10. Posted by snowball666 at 04/25/2009 @ 10:41am | ignore this person | warn this person

    weak as water, weak as water. Mrs. Slocum

    Posted by emile duBois at 04/25/2009 @ 10:46am

11. Grand Canyon?

    you're not him

    Posted by emile duBois at 04/25/2009 @ 11:18am

12. weak as water, weak as water.Posted by emile duBois at 04/25/2009 @ 10:46a.m

    The new literary opus by Emile "Frenchy" DuBois, "Weak as Water, Weak as Water" Read on as this smarmy, vindictive and bombastic author reinterates fullsome comments and generally makes a nuisance of himself.

    Read on as the author describes the inherent weakness of "water" as compared to the other four elements!

    A Must Read! For those on the verge of suicide!

    Posted by chaoszen at 04/25/2009 @ 11:27am

13. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/action/ignore.mhtml?who=snowball666

    it was said in jest.

    Posted by emile duBois at 04/25/2009 @ 11:43am

14. Thank god, my wife has ADD. Allows me to go off on the occasional tirade with no ill effects. She sheds my onerous rhetoric like water off a duck's back.

    The downside is that my attempts at rational dialogue are often met with the same cool disdain. There's an opportunity for romance, I believe. Got to be more perceptive. Smarter. I tend to talk (spout off) without making eye contact. Bad. Have got to engage more.

    The upside is that me & the wife are bulletproof. She'd accompany me to the nearest food bank or soup kitchen, if necessary.

    BTW, she's had her confrontations with nasty, imperious bastards & brassy, insulting bitches alike, as an employee & always walked away standing tall.

    Posted by Sorelish at 04/25/2009 @ 12:20pm

15. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090419184753.htm

    Now here is a subject everyone should be able sink their teeth into.

    Nanoantennas!

    Posted by chaoszen at 04/25/2009 @ 12:25pm

16. Never mind Pakistan.. No problem there with the Taliban only sixty miles from Islamambad and the keys to their Nuclear Arsenal.. The Elephant in the living room is just watching T.V. Pass the popcorn.

    Read up on Nanoantennas! Never mind the man behind the curtain!

    Posted by chaoszen at 04/25/2009 @ 12:31pm

17. Pay no attention to rumors of a Swine Flu Pandemic. After all, we eat Pigs for Breakfast! Bacon and eggs goes well with Swine Flu Toast.. Tends to reduce the surplus population, and lowers cholesterol, permanently!

    No worries there. As long as you sanitize the entire house with all those "Antibacterials" that some alarmists say produce "Super Germs". Nevermind that these diseases are caused by a virus. Virus schmirus, take an Antibiotic. They are probably just "Green People" anyway and possibly even crazy herb mutants. You know those "kind". Vegetarians, Macrobiotisists and maybe even dreaded "Vegans".

    Lighten up! It's all good..

    Posted by chaoszen at 04/25/2009 @ 12:54pm

18. Hmmm...Wonder if Betsy Reed has had her Gender Bent over too far(and maybe backwards)!

    Posted by comancheamerican at 04/25/2009 @ 6:39pm

19. where's ponti?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/26/2009 @ 12:47am

20. i wonder if mrs. geithner would do a better job...

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/26/2009 @ 01:20am

21. To anyone on the right who insisted pay equity was a myth need only look at these numbers to see that pay inequities among gender has existed for a long time. In a recession, when a business looks to cut costs, they often go for the higher paid individuals (typically men) first and the lower paid individuals (typically women) later on and a lesser proportion of women ultimately do not get laid off. That is what is happening here. Hopefully everyone will take this report and Obama's signing of The Lilly Ledbetter Act back in February and businesses will finally realize that while the have to do it because of law, pay inequity cuts both ways. This report is perfect evidence of this. I'd also be very interested to see how previous recessions fared in this regard and if the results are similar to our current recession.

    Posted by robbygtx at 04/26/2009 @ 3:27pm

22. ....In a recession, when a business looks to cut costs, they often go for the higher paid individuals (typically men) first and the lower paid individuals (typically women) later on and a lesser proportion of women ultimately do not get laid off. That is what is happening here....

    Posted by robbygtx at 04/26/2009 @ 3:27pm

    Uh, no.....NOT happening as you describe. You clearly haven't followed the current recession.

    This recession hit construction super hard (lest you really don't read, construction is heavily related to real estate AND financing)......activity and permits (for new) are down by MORE THAN HALF. Now, think how many commodities are needed (maybe cement, you think?) and manufactured durables are put in during construction. And in manufacturing industries, men dominate as well.

    Now, ask yourself, when was the last time you passed a construction site where women hard hats were a majority?

    Posted by Happy at 04/26/2009 @ 6:50pm

23. I think the writer forgets we live in a patriarchal system and it doesn't matter who stays home with the kids, the system needs to change. No matter how many men with families are laid off we still have a hyper capitalistic patriarchal system that women are working in. It's the system that needs to change. The masters of the universe in the insolvent banks that our government is propping up are controlling alot of our treasury decisions through their close relationship with Geithner and Summers. I would feel much better that things were really changing the patriarchal system if Elizabeth Warren were running the Treasury rather than the same arrogant former Goldman Sachs former Harvard President sexist bastard that helped run our economy into the ground in the first place under Clinton. You all know who I'm talking about. Then I would be convinced that maybe our system was becoming more fair and far less patriarchal. Where's Emma Goldman when we need her?

    Posted by lltrix at 04/26/2009 @ 7:56pm

24. by Happy at 04/26/2009 @ 6:50pm...

    You nailed it. Contractor supply shops are like ghost towns right now... as even the wealthy are balking on their potential projects...

    All this federal attention to banking just makes us all a little nervous about spending... and most of us 'ordinary people' have not received any bailout to speak of...

    Then again... the cathartic effect of realization... as many suspected... that the land commodities market really was spinning out of control... and that it really didn't make up for a manufacturing base... and that for a lot of people, making things that improve our lives is WAY more personally rewarding than 'buying low and selling high'... which grants a measure of healthy personal pride in achievement and a sense of belonging to one's community.

    You can't really buy it at Wall Mart...

    Posted by ttr at 04/26/2009 @ 8:21pm

25. What I'd like to know is who the hell can CHOOSE to bail out on working? I know I'd like to. Can't. Most people don't have the luxury of saying the hell with it, I'd rather retire.

    We don't live extravagantly--small house, used cars with over 100K. And yet...we couldn't do it on one paycheck.

    What relevance do these work force dropouts have to most of the rest of us, unless you are talking about those who desperately still search but cannot find anything and have run out of unemployment benefits?

    And Frosty Zoom, I bet Ms. Geithner WOULD do a better job, if she were a history major. Anything but an MBA would be better for a well-rounded education with some sense of a larger world than numbers and maybe some moral fiber.

    Posted by VEH at 04/27/2009 @ 10:06am

26. Isn't this what happened in the Great Depression and caused family strife when the heads of household (usually male) lost their jobs? And wasn't the 1920's more of a "feminist" era than the era (1950's) that came after the Depression (and the war)?

    Posted by Mistral at 04/27/2009 @ 12:20pm

27. 1. No, not really. "Family strife" was the least of people's problems in the 1930s.

    2. And no, not really. In fact, the notion that there has been a comparatively "feminist" era in history is entirely suspect.

    3. Please go back to 9th grade History class, thanks.

    Posted by vlinties at 04/29/2009 @ 04:43am