Toward A More Female Workforce?

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--Skye Rohde
I was reading through the New York Times the other week when I came across this article. The statistic is sobering: 82 percent of people laid off since the recession started are men. Fields like health care and education that tend to employ more women haven't been hit as hard by the economy yet. And journalist Catherine Rampell says that we're now at the point where women are just about to become the majority on the payrolls for the first time in history -- in part because of these recent layoffs.

All this starting me thinking about how these layoffs -- and this shift in breadwinning "duties" -- are hitting families where the husband is now out of a job but the wife is still working. What's different about the family dynamics?

On today's program we explore this trend from a few different angles: what's happening across the U.S., how one couple handled it when the wife had to lay off the husband to keep her business alive and how working moms are talking about their situations and choices during the recession.

We'd like to hear from you about how your spouses' layoffs have impacted your family life. How have things changed? How are you coping with these changes? Has your definition of "stability" changed? What do you tell -- and not tell -- your kids? Your family? Your friends?

Tags: economy | family | unemployment

12:00 AM ET | 02-19-2009 | permalink

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