The Minneapolis Star Tribune is one of the nation’s most liberal newspapers. Today it reminded us why it has achieved that dubious distinction. First, the paper headlined: Women slip behind as economy picks up. Given that pretty much everyone knows that the economic slump of the past four years has hit men particularly hard, that will strike most readers as a weird interpretation of events. The Strib explains:
For women in the middle class, the economic recovery is turning out to be a reversal of fortune.
Women held onto their jobs so much better than men during the recession that some even called it a “man-cession.”
But now, even as politicians and industry brag of job creation in the millions, job growth for women lags far behind men. Old stereotypes casting men as primary breadwinners and women as employees distracted by child-care responsibilities are reemerging as hiring revs up. Pregnancy discrimination complaints surged in the recession and remain high in recovery.
It all has a frustratingly familiar ring to Sheridan Zuther, who zips among seven part-time jobs as she tries to hold onto her home and the bottom edge of the middle class.
“I have always heard … that men are usually the first to get the jobs and that they get higher pay,” she said. “But it’s frustrating.”
This is beyond bizarre. First, as far as the “mancession” is concerned, if you depend on the Star Tribune for your news, if you blinked you would have missed it. The term has been used exactly once prior to today in the pages of the Strib, in this op-ed. Second, the paper’s own graphic reveals the obtuseness of its reporters’ interpretation of events. It is titled “Women shortchanged in economic recovery”:
Putting aside feminist spin, what do the numbers from the BLS actually tell us? Men were devastated by the recession, losing 6 million jobs. Women did much better, losing just 2.7 million jobs. Now, in the recovery–such as it is–men have made up some of that ground, gaining 2.4 million jobs, compared to 729,000 for women. If you net this out, since December 2007 men have lost 3.6 million jobs, while women have lost 2 million. Only in the world of liberal spin do these numbers, which reflect the devaluation of men in the Age of Obama, warrant more whining about discrimination against women.
We should also note that the Strib’s reporters apparently can’t read their own graphs. The Strib editorializes, in the text accompanying the graphic above, “in the recovery, men are rapidly picking up jobs being created, while women are still losing jobs.” Yet the graphic itself shows women gaining a net of 729,000 jobs since the recovery began.
The real point here, if the Star Tribune were not too blinded by ideology to see it, is that the Age of Obama has been a disaster for American families. Rather than trying to set men against women, let’s replace the politicians who have implemented policies that have made the current “recovery” by far the feeblest one on record.
More liberal myopia to come.
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