July 23, 2008

Equal opportunity layoffs and wage woes for women

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Not to belabor the "not opting out" conversation, but the day after I wrote about laying the so-called opt-out revolution to rest an interesting Congressional study was released: 

Contrary to once-popular belief, women have not been dropping out of the workforce in increasing numbers to raise kids or run households. Instead, they're losing their jobs and coming up against the same salary stalemates as men.

As the New York Times put it on Tuesday, "After moving into virtually every occupation, women are being afflicted on a large scale by the same troubles as men: downturns, layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages or the discouraging prospect of an outright pay cut. And they are responding as men have, by dropping out or disappearing for a while."

Lest you think this is only affecting executives or lower wage earners or some other segment of the population, think again.

According to the New York Times, "The pattern is roughly similar among the well-educated and the less educated, among the married and never married, among mothers with teenage children and those with children under 6, and among white women and black."

So put your feet up and have a cigar, ladies -- you've finally arrived!

All joking aside, what can do you if you feel forced out of the workforce by limited career opportunities?

For starters, some commenters at Working Dad suggest we steer clear of not just all the supposed "mommy wars" finger pointing but the meaningless term itself. (I agree; don't we have better things to worry about, like how we're going to pay the grocery bills?)

And if you're not sure what you'll do when your unemployment checks run out, ABCNews.com suggests worker retraining, which, if you just got laid off from, say, a mortgage industry gig, ain't a bad idea.

To learn more about working retraining -- and how much it costs -- check out Seattle Central's weekly Worker Retraining Information Sessions, held every Thursday at 2 p.m. on the main campus (on Broadway). The site says they offer 42 different professional and technical programs. Heck, if I ever run out of things to write, I just might look into their carpentry or deaf interpreter programs myself.

Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail Michelle at mgoodman@nwjobs.com

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