Is the Recession Really a "He-cession"?

In a lot of ways, the so-called "man-cession" or "he-cession" that so many news outlets have been talking about since the term was coined a year ago is easy to dismiss. Women still run only three percent of Fortune 500 companies, and we still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. How bad can it really be for men out there?

Last month, the New York Fed released a report that sheds some light on the matter. The report found that the Great Recession has indeed caused a significant unemployment gender gap — that's a much nicer term than "man-cession," no? — with men topping 11 percent unemployment in August 2009, compared to 8.3 percent for women. The report's authors, Ayşegül Şahin, Joseph Song and Bart Hobijn, point out that this 2.7 percent unemployment gender gap represents the largest such gap in the postwar era, and was likely caused by two factors: the weakening of manufacturing and construction industries, which are dominated by male employees, and a disproportionate increase in the percentage of men who re-entered the job market but could not find work.

So, no doubt the recession has dealt a rough hand to men. But is there more to the story? Of course!

In a St. Louis Fed report from October, author Howard J. Wall noted that recessions always impact men more than women, and in some ways the gap between men and women in this recession has been smaller than in past downturns. Specifically, Wall looks at the increase in employment that would have occurred if the recession had never happened, and found that women, African Americans, the less educated and the young have been the hardest hit groups. In other words, the "man-cession," though a real phenomenon, is probably being over-hyped.

You don't just have to take one author's word for it. Other recent studies have shown that single mothers are facing a staggering 13 percent unemployment rate nationwide, while as many as 6,500 female veterans are currently facing homelessness — twice as many as a decade ago. Add that to the fact that nearly twice as many women as men are predicted to face poverty in their retirement years, and men are predicted to recover more quickly from the recession, and you can see why calling this downturn a "man-cession" is not fair at all.

Now of course, this isn't a contest for who's got it worse. At the end of the day, all Americans are feeling the effects of the recession in one way or another. We just need to be careful not to let talk of a "man-cession" overshadow the many, real economic obstacles women in this country continue to face. That is one thing we definitely cannot afford to do.

Photo credit: khteWisconsin