It is disturbing to see that the effects of employers’ responses to the economic crisis are not being distributed equally throughout our population. While there’s a bit of controversy over who has it worse, it’s pretty clear that due to the structure of our economy, some groups are being laid off proportionally more than other groups. For example, African-Americans and Latinos are experiencing a higher percentage of layoffs.
Women working for pay are also experiencing the expression of sexism as they are chosen first for layoffs, and lose their jobs becuase they are pregnant (and “probably won’t want to come back to work”), or because they are working “only” part time (and don’t really “need” the job).
And how are layoffs affecting men and women differently?
Gender and the Perceived Consequences of Layoffs
While a larger proportion of men than women are being laid off, it’s not as though women as a group are doing “better”. (See Melissa McEwan at Shakesville for a good discussion.) Because women work fewer hours, are more likely to have part time jobs without health insurance, and in full-time jobs earn 20% less than men in the same jobs, it’s hard for many working women to support a family. It’s a tough situation for working moms.
What’s more interesting than a comparison of the numbers is a comparison in how we understand the consequences of layoffs for men and women. The consequences of being laid off are different for women and men.
Gendered Definitions for Consequences of Layoffs
It’s claimed that men feel that their masculinity is threatened when they are laid off. Hanna Seligson, author of “Why the Sting of Layoffs Can Be Sharper for Men” in The New York Times, quotes one laid-off man:
“It’s hard not to imagine yourself as the breadwinner,” he said. “A lot of your ego eggs are in the job basket. I can’t shake the psychology that I’m supposed to provide.
There’s a good bit of pain about not being able to fulfill that traditional element of the male gender role.
This gender role pain is compounded for men in two-worker families. Where the man has lost his job and the woman has is now the primary only breadwinner, both of them need to renegotiate their gender roles. These emasculated laid-off dads also need to renegotiate their relationships with stressed out, resentful, inadequately-paid-but-still-employed moms.
For men alone and men with employed female partners, the consequences of layoffs are the same– Layoffs are knocking men and their women partners out of our comfortable (or preferable?) gender roles. See the article in the Boston Globe, “ Balancing Acts” by Maggie Jackson:
For families, layoffs shift responsibilities, roles. Women’s earnings more crucial with men out of work.
For better or worse, as they say, it’s new gender role territory.
Layoffs: Bad for men, but what about for moms ?
But look how the perception of consequences changes, when it comes to layoffs of (formerly) working mothers .
In the conversation about consequences for women who lose their jobs, the gender role issue is quite different. Instead of the pain of getting accustomed to some newfangled gender roles, women who are laid off have the opportunity to return to an old-fashioned, more comfortable, and by inference, better understanding of maternal femininity. For women, the gender role challenge is not the brave new world of egalitarian relationships but rather “get back home where you belong.”
Layoffs, for the (formerly) employed mother, bring some amount of — wait for it — relief . These now-unemployed moms get to stay home!
Please, do hold on to your hats. There’s more. [click to continue…]
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The end of “business as usual”
Progressive organizations, organizations with a change-oriented purpose, need to put their values into practice as they go about creating change. Otherwise, they will not act authentically and they will reduce their own power.
I am an organizational identity and reputation scholar with a PhD in leadership & organizations. I research, write, teach and consult with organizations about the relationships between organizational identity, actions, and purpose. See the 
