Today's unemployment figures show that sadly 2.46 million people are unemployed in the UK. To further quote the BBC website (I pay my licence!):
"The latest ONS figures show that the number of unemployed men fell by 31,000 to 1.43 million, while the number of unemployed women fell by 5,000 to 1.03 million. But of the 12,400 extra people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, 9,300 were women, the highest figure since October 1996. The number of male claimants rose for the first time since January."
So there is a fall in unemployment and a rise in those claiming Jobseekers allowance from both genders. As the BBC highlighted, the female figure is the highest since 1996. So what is the significance considering there are 400,000 more unemployed men and that the number of men claiming job seekers allowance is 994,000 compared to 474,000 women. In addition, of the 670,000 young people who are unemployed, 61% are male.
So what you may say. Well the press' ever growing obsession of ignoring men and focusing on women meaNS the unemployment stories suddenly focus on the plight of women.
Here are a few - Telegraph , Daily Mail and of course The Guardian.
There is no comment that there are far more men who unemployed than woman. Unemployment is a tragedy for all concerned but to pick out women as a special cases shows that the men who have suffered during the recession are expendable. No comments are made about them.
Posted by Skimmington
Too right. And because having a job is so central to male identity 40 years of research shows men are much more affected in terms of mental health. This is in addition to the obvious effects in money and future prospects. This is yet another example of sexism assuming men should grin and bear it and empathy and concern is directed to the "weaker" sex.
Posted by: Groan | Friday, 20 May 2011 at 13:35