A downsizing economy, not opting out of the workforce to raise children, is behind a drop in the number of women in the workforce, a new federal report says. “[F]or the first time since the women’s movement came to life, an economic recovery has come and gone, and the percentage of women at work has fallen, not risen,” the New York Times [1] reported, citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“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,” the paper reported. “And they are responding as men have, by dropping out or disappearing for a while.”

A senior economist who specializes in women and work said that while analysts, when they first spotted this trend, thought the declining numbers of women in the workforce could be attributed to women opting out to take care of children, that doesn’t appear to be the case. (August 2008)