“ Womancession” or rationalization: the disappearance of office support jobs

In the past two years, more than one article, social report, economic research, blog has told about “new period” – the end of the “mancession” and the beginning of the “womancession”. A new word reflects the facts that women suffer more from rising unemployment.
Since the recession ended in 2009, the growth in jobs has gone to men while the level of women’s employment has declined. According to Naomi Cahn (2011) and Heather Boushey, men gained over a million jobs in 2010, while woman lost a total of 281,000. These trends are set to worsen. As Littlejohn (2011) states ‘the number of women claiming unemployment benefit is rising, largely because of a drop in part-time working and the loss of jobs in the so-called 'caring' sector’. There are other factors that go into a deeper understanding “women at work”.