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The Real Reason That - For the First Time Ever - More Women are Working Than Men
For the first time ever, at least half of all American workers are
women. In addition, mothers are the primary breadwinners or
co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of families.
These are the findings from a new report called The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything, put out by Maria Shriver, wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Shriver Report will receive widespread media coverage this upcoming week.
While
the mainstream media is heralding these findings as showing that women
have achieved gender equality with men, the true meaning of these
statistics is actually quite different.
As Wendy Norris, an investigative reporter based in Denver pointed out
in a recent interview, the "equality" of women in the workforce is the
result of the severity of the financial crisis and the resulting
unemployment among men. Specifically, it is well-known that men have suffered the majority of job losses from the rising tide of unemployment hitting America.
Norris also points out that these are lower-paying jobs, as women typically earn less then men.
So what is being celebrated as a sign of progress and equality is
actually an indication of the severity of the unemployment crisis in
America.
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cut right to it, didn't you?
to be fair, the rockefellers are more than one family, and they do not all share the same objectives. They are a fulcrum, with moving parts.
This is also the result of decades of abortion.
Not only are women participating in the workforce at an all time record, there is also a all time record percentage of working age women who have never delivered a child.
These women have NO CHOICE but to work because the cohort has shunned tradition.
Abortion?
Not birth control; a new perspective of the family unit; a change in traditions; aging demographics; increased in opportunity for women in the work place; greater ambitions from the fairer sex?
Listen, at the risk of retribution from others, I'll openly state that I'm pro-choice (but not psycho-pro-choice where I'll kill F-M-er's to defend it). But while the authors of Freakanomics pegged the falling crime rate of the 90's on Rowe v. Wade, I think your statement is a bit of a reach. BUT, I'd like to hear more from your perspective.
...And by the way, are we seeing the dumbing down of ZH? These CAPTCHA questions over the past couple days have never been easier. Wait, what am I saying...
i'm sorry, but what are you implying?
With all the other targeted aid programs Mr. Obama loves (autos, housing, banks, turltles needing a way to cross the road, etc), I am sure something must be in the works to bailout men. Maybe a czar to redistribute jobs among men and women - government knows best about these things.
And Feinberg might have some time mow he has figured out how much people in banking should make and how they should be paid.
We are very fortunate to have people in Washington who are so smart to take care of us knaves.......
This is actually old news (the record-breaking statistic may be new, but not men losing more jobs than women).
Several months back, the Wall Street Journal stated that it was due to the number of jobs lost in finance, construction and manufacturing.
http://online.wsj.com/video/men-suffer-in-jobless-figures/5DE39062-C744-...
Unfortunately, the men of this country have been shortchanged by a government that works for the multinationals and actually raffles off America’s jobs, most of them male, to the lowest bidding corporation. As unemployment of Americans mounts, Congress continues to offshore America’s jobs and import labor to replace working Americans at home—causing grave imbalances.
Manufacturing in America is over 70% males and construction is about 88% males. Meanwhile, the growing education and health services sector is 77% female. The government sector, which has remained strong, is 57% female. The securities business, which has been somewhat whacked, is 60% men. As BusinessWeek said last year: “For a man to move from a $20- or $30-an-hour union job to being a Wal-Mart greeter is devasting… Men also shy away from some of the growing fields, such as nursing. Only about 10% of nursing students nationwide are males…”
Meanwhile, blue-collar jobs that once supported families are drying up or are given to lower pay immigrant labor.
At the same time, multiple thousands of E-3, F, H-1B, J, and L-1 visas are used to drive down compensation in America, to facilitate off-shoring, and to facilitate age discrimination—particularly in primarily male jobs such as engineering, high tech, biosciences, sales, et cetera.
As has been said, “American men are in recession, and American women are not.” It has also been said that “the ‘female’ economy can’t stay strong for long if the ‘male’ economy weakens too much.”
The American male's problem is Congress and multinational employers such as Bill Gates. It was only last February that Microsoft and Intel laid off 5000 U.S. workers and replaced them with less expensive foreign workers. Consider this dialog in testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology in 2008 when Gates called for an increase in the 65,000 a year base cap of H-1B visas (actual number higher), saying delay had already “exacerbated an already grave situation” in the U.S. economy’s demand for skilled professionals…”:
Gates: “As a result, many U.S. firms, including Microsoft, have been forced to locate staff in countries that welcome skilled foreign workers to do work that could otherwise have been done in the United States if it were not for our counterproductive immigration policies. Last year, for example, Microsoft was unable to obtain H-1B visas for one-third of the highly qualified foreign-born job candidates that we wanted to hire…
“[W]hen we bring in these world-class engineers, we create jobs around them…“(Actually U.S. engineers have been proven better and newly-hired American university graduates “become productive within 30 days or so” as compared to, say Indian university graduates at 3-6 months.)
Rep. Dana Rohrabacker (R-CA): “But according to BusinessWeek, almost 150,000 computer programmers have lost their jobs in this country since the year 2000. Now, my reading of all this (from Gates) is that there are plenty of people out there to hire but people want to have the top quality people from India and China and elsewhere, and they’re willing to have these 150,000 American computer programmers just go unemployed.” (US Labor Department data show that 56% of applications filed are for H-1B workers with the lowest skill level [level 1 of 4]. http://www.cis.org/article/2007/back407.html )
Gates: Actually, BusinessWeek doesn’t do surveys. I think you’re referring to a quote in BusinessWeek from an Urban Institute study…
Rohrabacker: That’s what I said, according to BusinessWeek.
Gates: It's not according to BusinessWeek. There was a study that a group at Urban Institute did that was deeply flawed in terms of how it defined what an engineer is. When we say that these jobs are going begging, we're in business every day. We're not kidding about it. These jobs are going begging, and the result is that in a competitive economy ...
Rohrabacher: You'd have to raise wages.
Gates: No, wages are –
Rohrabacher: If a job's going begging, you raise wages, now in a –
Gates: No, it's not an issue of raising wages. These jobs are very, very, very high-paying jobs. And we are hiring as many of these people as we can.
(Rohrabacker’s time was called.)
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/134123.asp
Another interesting factor: From rough parity in 1980, women made up 57 percent of the 16.6 million American college goers in 2006. By 2010, the Department of Education expects the ratio to be around 60 to 40. In other words, that thumb on the boys’ side of the admissions scale will have to press much harder in the coming years to keep those male dormitories across the country fully populated. Perhaps boys just aren’t interested in women’s studies or the toxic culture that greets them on many U.S. campuses.
I am tired of hearing Indians and other foreigners being blamed for unemployment in the US. Obviously I am an Indian. I have worked in the IT industry in India, Europe and America and I also attended grad school in the US. I believe I have an objective perspective. To begin with the average Indian engineering graduate is far smarter and qualified than the average American graduate. Check any decent grad school and you will the science and engineering departments flooded with foreigners. Most Americans do not have the inclination or the skill to pursue engineering. If it were not American government scholarships which only Americans are eligible for, the number of Americans in grad school would be even less.
At work, I find the average American has a very high sense of entitlement. They are loud in their demands and put nowhere near the same level of work as foreigners do. Indians are ready to work every weekend, but the average white collar American worker balks at such an idea. I can say that the average Indian IT worker can replace a couple of average American IT workers for half the wage.
Note : I am only speaking about the 'average' worker. I happily concede that the smartest and brightest Americans can compete with anyone in the world. But they are few. My measure of 'smartest' is higher than the norm for Microsoft.
The root of all this evil is the second rate education in schools. The average American high school graduate will not survive middle school in India. The solution to America's problems are simple, spend more time on math and science education and improve standards. Stop wasting time and resources on sports, fashion and worshiping the rich celebrities.
"I am tired of hearing Indians and other foreigners being blamed for unemployment in the US. Obviously I am an Indian. ... I believe I have an objective perspective."
I can believe, that you believe you are being objective.
Only, you aren't.
My experience, in the machinery engineering world, is that H1B engineers are cheap and their ready availability holds down the wages of the more domestic help. Period.
Quality of the work? Substandard, for the most part. Even sloppy sometimes.
And, I can guarantee none of our H1B engineering staff EVER works weekends or holidays because I've done just that on many occasions and I've never seen the H1B boys/girls bother to come in at all. Never. They don't work late, they don't come in for weekend work, they certainly don't come to work on holidays and they don't "get their hands dirty" like some of the rest of us do.
Better yet, one of our H1B ladies has learned to play the "sexual harrassment lawsuit" game not once, but twice, into promotions and raises. The woman tried to give me a hug once, but knowing where she was going, I only shook her hand and excused myself instead.
I once "worked" with a Chinese engineer who didn't understand one word of English. Not one word. I have no idea how he ever got anything done. He was at work everyday and he seemed busy but no one ever knew what he did.
I went through one plant shutdown and layoff where the American staff was summarily sent away but the H1Bs got "loud in their demands" and managed to keep themselves on the payroll. Once they found other work in the USA so they didn't have to return to India/China, they accepted their layoffs and parted ways with our employer.
I understand what's behind the HR and accounting desires for H1B employees (the almighty dollar) but we have managers who seem to go out of their way to interview and hire Chinese and Indian engineers while showing no desire to even consider qualified Americans. I don't get it. It's only insanity.
I just finished my Ph.D. in physics, and this guy nailed it on the head. If you found someone studying (as opposed to goofing off) late at night in the TA office, chances are he wasn't white. Although, from my experience, the Europeans have the strongest pure mathematics background of all the non-Americans in technical fields.
I'm a Nth generation white guy from middle class roots born in Ohio and raised in Kentucky, married to an Indian physician, and much of my personal experience confirms what you are saying. I used to interview candidates for the internal medicine residency program my wife and I both went to, and the U.S. grads were just fuck-ups for the most part. We could get much better qualified people from the foreign medical grad population. In all fairness, it wasn't a top residency program, but most Americans aren't taken care of by graduates from top programs; they are taken care of by average docs. As a nation, we've devalued internal medicine, so most of the qualified people willing to do it are brown, and most are women.
Personally, I had a top rate math/sci education at public magnet schools from 7th - 12th grade, and it made the world my oyster. I have a high degree of confidence in my future economic success, and it is because I was lucky enough to be born smart and then have a great education. Too many kids here have very little chance to succeed.
Well said.
Some men still polish their Rifles and JackBoots as well.
Yes, sir, a New America is coming... to replace this ZioBankrupted one.
Gates and his ilk are going to be offshored out of America, never to return.
Let him whine all he wants he won't be "American" for long because he doesn't want a European American Future and it doesn't want him either.
;)
"Ziobankrupted"?
If you want to be taken seriously, stop being a racist piece of shit.
The universal sign that the person is talking BS(and not the academic kind) about job availability.
Closer and closer to the destruction of the patriarchy! We can finally return to the societal patterns seen in matriarchies, where the women do all the house work and all the work outside of the home, and the men hunt and fight amongst themselves.
Ladies, how do things look from your side of the fence? Have you noticed one gender or the other getting the short end of the stick in the current job market?
More men tend to make it into middle management and supervisory roles than women (although that is changing), and that is one of the first places where compression and cost savings come from. Also, IT projects are often the first things shelved by companies when times get tough. Once again, you are likely to find more men than women in these areas. And as other readers have noted, many of the sectors hardest hit (housing, constrution, machinery) have a large percentage of men in them.
What is more interesting is why do you find a higher percentage of men in higher paying jobs. I've seen to many studies that chalk it up to "discrimination". There certainly is some of that out there, however, in many cases the reasons are far less sinister and often self-imposed.
Before children, insane work hours at certain times of the year, or when a high profile project was underway, were part and parcel of the job. Take two spouses in this boat, and then add children. Then add the question of what is the point of having them if neither spouse if going to have enough time to provide the level of attention and influence that they feel is needed. I went part-time (hahahah - part-time was such a misnomer). I was encouraged to apply for a higher level job, on the understanding that I would need to go back to full time. While some people can juggle these things well, after much soul searching and discussions with my spouse, I concluded that I was not one of them, and declined the position. While I enjoyed my job immensely and it was a tough decision, in hindsight, I know that for my family, it was without question the right choice.
I have run across many very capable women who have followed a similar course, and turned down higher paying jobs that they felt would further impact their ability to make time for their children.
Hats off to those men who have stepped into those roles and done them well. We have acquaintances where the husband became the "mom" and given the disposition of the two parents, it was the better choice.
"Then add the question of what is the point of having them if neither spouse if going to have enough time to provide the level of attention and influence that they feel is needed."
I wish that more of america would understand this as well as you do. Thank you for your perspective.
This is easy to effect: stop funding dual-income mortgages. They are the single biggest cause of dual incomes. I know so many middle-class couples who hire nannies. They would rather not, but they're stuck because they have to make the dual-income mortgage.
Did heavy industrial demolition of a steel mill two years ago. Those were great jobs, all men in the the physically demanding, filthy slots. Women just wouldn't do it.
Same in construction. Plumbers, sheetmetal workers, drywallers, roofers, carpenters, framers, most electricians. The physical demands, weather conditions, safety issues, etc. kept most females out. Lumberjacking, dam building, road cutting, heavy equipment operating, crane and derrick work. Mining, drilling, farming, ranching etc. are not attractive to the sort of personality which can't endure humiliation, pain and heavy burdens, long bouts of suffering. If females don't go for these professions, I wouldn't say it was because they were the less intelligent for it.
Called it the triple D syndrome. Jobs that were Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult had overwhelming male representation.
"Those were great jobs, all men in the the physically demanding, filthy slots. Women just wouldn't do it."
I think this is just male defensiveness talking... I know some damn tough women who could and would take on any job. Their number may be small... but the fact that they were excluded is pure sexual discrimination.
I'll work for a woman's wage.
Would any comment I make be considered sexist? thought so
My wife works as a payroll / HR secretary in the medical field. Meanwhile I am layed off, and have been since 01/03/09.
Yup, she is better than me! :-)
I always thought employers were stupid to be sexist as they could generally get women for cheaper than men. Know a local buisness guy from 30 years ago was just that smart, and didn't just have women do low end work for cheap but had them in more than 60 percent of his management positions, the company was into travel and other things that somewhat women centric purchases...they did great for years, kickingtheir competitors.
If you look at poorer communities, this has already happened, been a trend for awhile, such as poor Black men unemployment vs. Black women...now it is just spreading to the middle class, or, more correctly, as the middle class is descending into poverty, more people are in the poor class where men don't get to make decent, head bread-winner money anymore.
unfortunately:
The vast majority of these jobs were created over the last 25 years, in education, healthcare, and state government, false economies all.
Also, associated superior benefits and job security increase the value of the cash flows, and transfer payments to both working and non-working women are are not adequately measured in the comparison of compensation.
The second stage is going to carve out a number of these jobs, and tax receipts are in structural decline. Women would do well to plan a quick migratory path across trussel, to the other side, before the falsework is removed by the oncoming water.
The strait was designed to get the kids, and anyone who wanted to go along, over to the other side before economic collapse.
would love to know the stats on %age women/men in govt jobs.
Senior management will still be more men than women but lower down staff is overwhelmingly female.
One reason: mommy benefits.
Agreed, the only reason more women haven't lost their jobs is because they're disproportionally employed by the government, who thus far hasn't had to make the deep cuts seen in the private sector. Of course, public sector jobs cannot support themselves, so at some point in the next couple years I expect them to rapidly dry up.
"The vast majority of these jobs were created over the last 25 years, in education, healthcare, and state government, false economies all."
What could possibly be 'false' about these vital sectors?
They are paid for with taxes. Taxes from a real economy, not the public services they represent. ALL government, institutional employment relies on the production of goods and services (though this sector, Services, equally relies on after tax income to purchase it) sold to others, preferably foreign countries.
False means that they cannot exist without jobs in industry.
would like to point out that healthcare is actually not a false industry. in a total economic collapse, many industries would be wiped out and tax receipts would fall drastically, reducing money available for the funding of your so called "false economies." however, if you needed medical treatment to save your life or to eliminate unbearable suffering, you would liquidate all of your remaining assets and use them to pay a physician or surgeon to make you well. unlike education and government jobs, the work of physicians and surgeons will always be in demand. indeed, in a total economic collapse, physicians and surgeons would likely be the last ones standing, as the price one would be willing to pay for medical services in the absence of artificial government fee restrictions would only be limited by the total net worth of the potential patient.
Remove the medicare/medicaid and insurance scam, and most of the abused credit options for today's USA consumer, and healthcare would be a whole different animal. If people had to work a pay-go system for medical care, the costs would come way down and much more control by the patient would emerge.
The system we have is a welfare-socialized mangled mess which doctors have learned to scam as well as any gaming system in the USA cradle-to-grave experiment gone wrong.
Only by distorting the supply/demand curve and ability to pay structure of the average citizen can medicine extract such a disproportionate share of US GDP.
The "real economy" jobs were shipped out to Mexico, China, Honduras, East Timor, Guatemala, Bangladesh, India, etc. Remember Ross Perot trying to warn us? Also, do you want to get rid of the following "false economy" jobs: firefighter, school teacher, policeman, postal carrier, garbage collector, sewage plant operator, drinking water plant operator, librarian? Please don't listen to Rush Limbaugh all day. Read history instead. It's much more entertaining, and you actually learn a lot of things that can actually help you understand and survive what is going on. Rush is just making money for himself.
p.s Sure are a lot of -'s in the Math questions.