Men no longer reap all the benefits

Oh, how the tables have turned. I don't want to brag or anything, but I still have a job. Two, actually. Yes, they're both part-time, and they both pay very little, but my situation is not exactly dire (yet). I can't say the same for many of America's working (or recently laid-off) men. 

Men have taken disproportionate slice of America's job market for quite some time now, while making more money to the dollar than women in nearly every position (women make 80 cents for each dollar a male coworker earns, according to a 2003 report by the U.S. General Accountability Office). That fact has now come to bite men in the butt. 

The San Jose Mercury News recently reported that 80 percent off all pink slips handed out since December 2007 have gone to men, especially those in sinking fields such as construction and manufacturing (San Jose Mercury News). That means that men are having to stay home while women work their butts off. Women, according to the article, generally work for more stable employers such as schools and hospitals. 

Now families that survived on the larger incomes of the male head-of-households are barely making mortgage payments with what the women head-of-households make. 

If only women made the same amount of money as men to start with, then maybe (just maybe) families wouldn't be suffering as they are now. I'm not saying the recession wouldn't be painful; it would be. However, it would hurt us all less if there were more equality in the workplace.

Let's hope that a positive result of this recession is that women will start earning as much as their male counterparts, and will, in turn, be valued more in the workplace.