President Barack Obama signs the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act earlier this year.

Dana Goldstein
The Daily Beast

It was sold as the silver lining of the recession: With the national unemployment rate inching toward 10 percent—and the bloodletting especially severe in testosterone-fueled industries like finance and manufacturing—women were supposedly doing dandy. Federal stimulus dollars protected typically female jobs in nursing and teaching. The New York Times trumpeted that laid-off dads were picking up more chores around the house while “opt-out” moms headed back to the office, saving their families from financial destitution. For the first time in American history, women accounted for 49 percent of the labor force. Within the next few weeks, it is likely that more than half of all workers will have two X chromosomes, a milestone that would have been unimaginable to previous generations.

It’s true that men account for four-fifths of all layoffs since the downturn began nearly two years ago. But scratch the statistical surface and you’ll find that American women are hardly sailing through the economic storm. A new report by California's first lady, Maria Shriver, and the Washington-based Center for American Progress contains some encouraging news on shifting attitudes about gender. It finds that both men and women are enthusiastic about increased gender diversity in the workplace, and men are taking on more responsibility at home. But it also finds that most American women remain mired in unstable jobs with few employee benefits.

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