Another day, another dispiriting set of news pieces on the UK's rising unemployed population. But if reports are to be believed, it seems that women should be fearing for their jobs more than men, as twice as many of us have been made unemployed in the past quarter. The Mail reports today that 32,000 women lost their jobs in the three months to February compared with 16,000 men.
That's a quite shocking statistic, and one that unfortunately does seem to be reflected in my anecdotal experience of friends and acquaintances currently out of work. Almost all are women, and of those in work, far more women than men in my wider social network are having to work part-time, on a freelance basis without having chosen to do so, on a temporary basis or on lower wages than they are realistically worth.
Clearly, this gender distribution of job woes is not unusual. So why is it that women are suffering so much more in the job market at the moment? One clear cause is the over-representation of women in the public sector, where widespread cuts are occurring. About 60% of the sector is staffed by women, many of them in posts that are the most vulnerable to cuts.
Anna Bird, Acting CEO of the Fawcett Society said: "Losing a job is devastating for anyone, man or woman. But women typically start off poorer, they tend to earn less, own less, and have less financial security than men. Taking away their jobs, while also cutting their benefits and cancelling the vital services that enable them to juggle jobs with families undermines women's ability to act independently, to provide for themselves, to be financially self reliant."
Are you concerned for your job and do you think women are doing worse in the recession?
