From The Times:

Women get more jobs in recession

The “mancession” has arrived in Britain. Women are the winners
in the battle of the sexes for jobs in the downturn.

More than 120,000 women found new part-time jobs in the past
quarter while 50,000 men were made redundant from full- or
part-time jobs, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission will issue a report
this month saying that men in Britain are suffering more during
the recession. The number of men at work is at the lowest level
for a decade, as jobs haemorrhage from the manufacturing and
construction industries.

The word “mancession” was coined by economists to signal the disproportionate toll suffered by male workers in the US, where four out of every five jobs lost were held by men.

The change is rewriting gender roles. An article in today’s Sunday Times Magazine reports that the number of fathers who stay at home to care for their children while their wives work in highly paid jobs has more than doubled in the past decade to 200,000.

Women are more likely to be employed in education and health, in which the workforce has increased in the past quarter. However, women did suffer a greater loss of full-time jobs (68,000) than men (12,000) in the latest quarter.

The vulnerability of men in the workplace is mirrored in education where girls are outsmarting boys. Girls easily outstrip boys in GCSE results and last year there were 173,000 female undergraduates compared with 141,000 male.

Kate Bleasdale, the founder and vice-chairman of Healthcare Locums, said: “Women are more protected in the public sector. Healthcare is recession-proof and there are 4m vacancies worldwide.

“Ninety per cent of doctors are men but last year, for the first time, 55% of newly qualified doctors were women. In the next five years it is estimated that will rise to 70%.”

Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, which has produced a report saying labour turnover among women has dropped to a five-year low, said: “Women are more flexible and more willing to adapt. Men are much more status-orientated. When a man changes jobs, he is more interested in matching his pay than expressing his skills.”

More women are now setting up more small businesses than men. A report this month by the Federation of Small Businesses claims the number of self-employed women running companies could double to more than 2m over the next 10 years.

Liz Jackson, 36, managing director of Great Guns Marketing, which she set up 11 years ago with the aid of the Prince’s Trust and which now has an annual turnover of £3m, said: “Many of these women are working mothers and wives. They get used to having to juggle and be very creative with their time and their diaries. Chaps are fearing the recession, women are seeing it as an opportunity.”