Women left out of economic recovery - 90% of new jobs go to men

[asphaltcowboi]

Originally Posted by Blade

While I agree with "gaea" let me say also that with the economy such as it is, housing and construction have taken a large hit. The majority of construction workers are men. Also companies that are driven by housing and construction are typically predominately jobs that are done by men. Like my company is dependent on new housing starts...most of our employees are men. Maybe 200 women out of 2500 jobs in the company.

Totly agree.. i would like to see a precentage compairson. female job losses vs male job losses then percentage of men working in typical female fields and women working in typical male fiendls.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by cody

Totly agree.. i would like to see a precentage compairson. female job losses vs male job losses then percentage of men working in typical female fields and women working in typical male fiendls.

Well, the report said:

1) ACROSS ALL JOBS: 7/2009 - 2/2011 - Men have gained 600,000 job and women have lost 300,000

2) Retail (historically 50% men, 50% women in field): 7/2009 - 7/2010 - men have gained 100,000 jobs, women have lost 100,000

[JustJo]

This is a little off base, I know....but I'm getting ready to turn 49 this week, was raised by a mother we called "the feminazi", and my first (unsuccessful) political efforts were directed at pushing the ERA through...

I guess that's the long way of saying that none of this surprises me.

I'm a single mother, and have worked my whole life. In fact, I've never been supported by a man...not even a father. For me, women have always been the breadwinners...and have never made pay on par with men, even for the same work.

About 8 years ago I decided that, to get out of the "female pay" rut, I had to either get an advanced degree, or grow a penis. I opted for an MBA. I'm sure I make less than most men with MBA's, but at least it gets me in "male pay" range in general.

I was also struck by what was said about powerful mentors. That's the truth. And, I just lost mine when she resigned this week. My immediate reaction was to seek out another one....and I've initiated that relationship. He's higher ranking and better connected than my last one...and that's on purpose.

Women aren't going to be handed pay equality. We have to be tough and smart about it personally, while we continue to advocate for it politically.

[C0LLETTE]

I just learned a new word ( to me ):" misogynoir"

Black lifestyle influencer and blogger Sasha Exeter explained how, when she posted a generic call for Instagram influencers to speak out on Black Lives Matter and the anti-police brutality protests, Jessica Mulroney – stylist, heiress to the Browns Shoes fortune and daughter-in-law of Canada’s 18th prime minister – took offence.

Although Ms. Exeter never named the socialite specifically in her call to action, she says Ms. Mulroney reacted as if she did and, over the span of a week, launched into a textbook display of bullying and harassment tactics to excuse her lack of support for the protests, making herself the victim and Ms. Exeter the aggressor for posting her initial call. Ms. Mulroney then allegedly even threatened her livelihood, claiming that she called companies about Ms. Exeter and musing about suing for libel (or, as she wrote, “liable,” because white fragility is not mutually exclusive from bad spelling).

Ms. Exeter’s words – and the fear and anxiety behind them – expressed what Black women have experienced from white women in the professional space for decades: bullying and abuse that turn Black women into the nail for the hammer of white supremacy, which is then wielded by powerful women. This is made possible by intersections of race, class and gender that have underpinned our socioeconomic hierarchy since First Contact. The privilege that Jessica Mulroney wields is a power that places white, cis-gendered, heterosexual males at the top, followed by their female counterparts; they are second-in-command in a hierarchy of white supremacy, in which Black women are near the bottom. Ms. Mulroney, bolstered by the elite connections of institutional power that Ms. Exeter lacks, felt comfortable enough bullying a Black woman for a perceived threat to her brand – which is, of course, just another way she amasses power. “Listen, I’m by no means calling Jess a racist,” Ms. Exeter said in her video. “But what I will say is this: She is very well aware of her wealth, her perceived power and privilege because of the colour of her skin.”

White privilege is the necessary and sufficient condition for the perpetuation of white supremacy, but this situation seems like a case of misogynoir. The term, introduced into the lexicon by queer feminist scholar Moya Bailey, is "an attempt to force black women into boxes and make us more palatable. It’s the idea that we should never scream, never fight, never take ownership of ourselves, because the minute we do, we’ll be painted as ‘angry black women’ and dismissed.” As Black feminist activist Chanju Mwanza wrote in Medium, “Black women are seen as threatening, loud and angry every time they try to make a point.” Ms. Exeter acknowledges this reality in her video, saying that it “wasn’t enough” that Ms. Mulroney went after her career: “She made herself the victim, of course, me the villain.”

We saw a version of this weaponization of white women’s innocence in the story of Amy Cooper, a white, Canadian-born woman who called the police on a Black bird-watcher in New York’s Central Park when he asked her to leash her dog, making explicit on that call that he was “an African-American man threatening my life.” “Now, not only is Jessica very well aware of her white privilege,” Ms. Exeter said, “but, just like her fellow Canadian Amy Cooper, she spewed out that threat so effortlessly.”

Ms. Mulroney also deployed a classic defence: that she had a Black friend. “As I told you privately, I have lived a very public and personal experience with my closest friend where race was front and centre,” she wrote in response to Ms. Exeter’s video, referring to Meghan Markle. But even before she met and married Prince Harry, Ms. Markle represented a comfortable level of Blackness that didn’t threaten the white social order; she’s biracial, and therefore light-skinned, and can easily mix amongst Canada’s elite. Now, as the Duchess of Sussex, her proximity to the epicentre of white, colonialist power overshadows that of Ms. Mulroney’s, so she gets invited into the latter’s circles.

As Canada grapples with its own productive capacity for perpetuating structural racism as a function of white supremacy – amid global protests against police brutality and anti-Black racism – the swift action taken by Cityline, CTV, Kleinfeld and Good Morning America to part ways with Ms. Mulroney is more indicative of the changing social attitudes toward anti-Black racism and, more specifically, Black Lives Matter. The New York Times reported that “by a 28-point margin, Civiqs [an online survey research firm] finds that a majority of American voters support the movement, up from a 17-point margin before the most recent wave of protests began.” (I would rather cite Canadian data, but that would require, well, data.)

But it is also only logical that Ms. Mulroney, who has enjoyed a solid career as an influencer, has lost work. In her field, success is measured by one’s ability to recognize and capitalize on trends – and Black Lives Matter is, if nothing else, trending across the culture. By failing to do her job well, Ms. Mulroney has tied her brand to the infamy associated with pivoting to wrong side of history.