Report cites women's recession hardships

NEW YORK - The economic downturn has been called the "Mancession" - a recession that has affected men disproportionately because of its effect over the last two years on male-dominated sectors such as construction and manufacturing.

But that term rings hollow to women such as Sara Wade, an Illinois teacher who became the sole supporter of two school-aged children - possibly for good, she fears - when her ex-husband, a carpenter and contractor, stopped paying child support 15 months ago. Or to Martha Gonzalez, a divorced mother of three in Texas who had to take a part-time second job when her real estate work became scarcer. She lost her benefits, too, and has no health insurance.

Concerned about women like these, a congressional committee has issued a report, timed for Mother's Day, outlining how the recession has harmed working women - especially mothers, particularly single ones. A copy was provided to the Associated Press ahead of its Monday release.

The report, by the Joint Economic Committee, finds that whereas during the bulk of the recession job losses - which totaled about eight million - were overwhelmingly male, the trend began reversing as the economy edged toward recovery in recent months.

"As job losses slowed in the final months of 2009, women continued to lose jobs as men found employment," says the report, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.), chair of the committee, noted that the findings were especially dire for single mothers: Their jobless rate rose to 13 percent from 8 percent between 2007 and 2009.

Even women who have held onto their jobs have found the economic sands shifting beneath them in ways they never anticipated. Wade counts herself among the luckier ones. An eighth-grade English teacher in Skokie, Il., for 16 years, she has tenure and seniority.

Her husband, whom she divorced in 2004, is a carpenter and contractor, "just the kind of job they mean when the call it a Mancession," she says. Now she is the sole source of economic support for their 8-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. She's worried about a potential pay freeze at her school: "I'm the sole provider and I could be stuck here at this level."

"We have no safety net for these women," says Rep. Gwen Moore (D., Wis.). "Eight million women are the sole breadwinners in their family, and public policy needs to be a little more empathetic to this. Because when a woman loses her job, the whole family falls off a huge cliff."