Now That's a Stretch

Actual USA Today headline: "Women gain as men lose jobs."

Actual content of the story: Women have been "gaining" in the sense that they're paid less, work fewer hours, and are more likely to work part-time and in low-paid fields like health care and education—and so are less likely than men to get laid off. How that works out to a "gain" over men baffles me. One man's union manufacturing job is not another woman's crappy $7-an-hour retail gig. And until we as a society address the underlying problem here—women's work is undervalued, and women are underrepresented in employment sectors that actually pay a living wage—we won't be anywhere near the "equality" that stories like this one crow about.