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David Stanley Ford

Many Oklahoma men find roles reversed
Jobless ranks in Oklahoma continue to grow

VALLERY BROWN    Comments Comment on this article6
Published: July 5, 2009



More men are losing their jobs than women, economic reports indicate, and the results could be reshaping more than the jobless rate.

Oklahomans aren’t losing jobs equally. In May, there were more than 22,000 claims for initial unemployment benefits filed; twice as many men filed for the benefit as women, said Lynn Gray, chief economist for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.


In this June 30, 2009 photo, an unemployed worker, left, talks with an Employment Guide staffer at a job fair in San Jose, Calif. Stock futures fell ahead of the June unemployment report set for release before the market opens Thursday, July 2. Economists are expecting an increase. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

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Job loss often shifts roles

Karina Shreffler, assistant professor of human development and family science at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, said economic stress and job losses are one of the most difficult things families face.

"Men define themselves by their jobs. It’s a point of identification, but particularly for men,” Shreffler said.

Shreffler said job losses and role reversals such as those being seen now often coincide with higher rates of divorce, domestic violence, depression and poverty.

"But it does have the possibility of making the population more egalitarian. With women making more money, they earn more influence,” she said.

She said many men are now taking on the stay-at-home dad role, but some women don’t like this shift.

"Sometimes women don’t appreciate the role as breadwinner. Even though most households have two earners, women still do the majority of the housework,” she said.

VALLERY BROWN,

Staff Writer

Nearly 74 percent of women in the United States with children between 6 and 17 work, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers from 2008, but as the dynamic swings in the recession, many think this number will continue to increase.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission in May released seasonally adjusted employment records.

Oklahoma’s unemployment increased 0.1 percent from April numbers to 6.3 percent. The national rate for the same month was 9.4 percent.

Gray said industries that tend to be more sensitive to changes in the business cycle typically employ more men.

Production jobs such as mining and logging, construction and manufacturing, are traditionally male driven.

Manufacturing lost 16,000 jobs in May, according to commission reports. From May 2008 to May 2009, mining and logging jobs decreased more than 13 percent and manufacturing jobs dropped nearly 11 percent.

Russell Evans, director of the Center for Applied Economic Research at Oklahoma State University, thinks Oklahoma has not peaked in unemployment.

"The pattern, at least in Oklahoma, was that our early job losses were in construction, energy and manufacturing, oil and gas extraction and other jobs that are fairly male dominated,” he said.

Evans thinks things will even out, but not without an adjustment in the employment mix — more service jobs, unconventional oil and gas recovery, possibly younger workers and even more women in the workplace.

"These things have a huge effect on habits and the psyche,” Evans said. "We tend to hang on to and remember these things.”

Taking the lead
Sherry McGlone, 38, of Ponca City, said her husband Mark, 42, lost his job with ConocoPhillips in March. Since then, McGlone has become her family’s source of income.

McGlone, a paralegal, has an associate’s degree, and her husband has a bachelor’s degree.

"No matter how much you plan things, you learn you just have to go with it. It’s one thing at a time,” she said. "We were definitely in the prime of our careers.”

McGlone said her husband was always involved and very hands-on with their 11- and 14-year-old daughters, but since becoming unemployed he’s had to become even more so.

"It’s been a role reversal,” McGlone said. "But it’s bringing us closer. And I think as a society it will change how we do things.”

Candace Austin, 28, of Oklahoma City, said her husband lost his job in January. With a 4-year-old son, medical bills and other household responsibilities that need attending to, her husband, Jamey, has taken on many of the household chores.

Grocery shopping, picking out their son’s preschool, cooking and other house chores are now Jamey’s responsibility, Austin said.

‘These are things I would always handle when he was working full time,” she said.

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David Stanley Ford


Related Topics: Business, Economic Indicators, Labor Market, Unemployment Rate


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Another fine day in JOKE-Lahoma.
Cletus, Mayberry - Jul 5, 2009 at 10:29 am
Many jobs in the USA and in Oklahoma have been lost because the rich owners of the companies and corporations have outsourced jobs previously held by Americans to overseas.

If you have AT&T as your internet service provider and you have a computer connection problem, you have to talk to someone in India. Shortly before SBC (Southwestern Bell Communications) changed its name to "AT&T," its people went to the Oklahoma State Legislature and the Oklahoma Corporations Commission to ask them for a special tax reduction to continue to do business in the state.

But, after they got that, did they hire more Oklahomans qualified to work for them? No, they sent those jobs overseas.
Joe-Allen, Tulsa - Jul 5, 2009 at 10:11 am
Doug...I'm constantly amazed by the okies that get on here and talk about the "cheap cost of living", blah, blah, blah, and then the surveys come out stating 25% of okies don't have vehicle insurance, 50% of them are drawing food stamps and or medicaid, 36.3 % of them don't have health insurance, AND their average median wage ranks 47th in the country and STILL they'll rant about how "cheap" it is to live here. Is it cheap to live here because okies (or a good percentage of them) just don't bother paying their basic required bills?? The reason unemployment is so low here isn't because of "good work ethic", nor "everybody who looks for a job gets a job", it's because most people are so broke they need 2 jobs in order to make ends meet. What they don't realize is that for all but a choice few, the wages here are so poor they don't understand what it's like to make *real* money instead of working for menial wages.....
paul, yukon - Jul 5, 2009 at 10:10 am
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A real "Okie" is a person who let the state of Oklahoma to look for work out of state. I don't know why people adopted this hateful word for themselves or use it to make fun of other Oklahoma residents. Oklahomans didn't invent the word 'Okie;" it was the Californians whose ancestors were from other states.
Joe-Allen, Tulsa - Jul 5, 2009 at 10:05 am
Shh Paul. They don't want to talk about "under employment" as it might require they admit that Oklahoma is having problems in this economy. That would run counter to the "our housing market is fine" mantra put forth by the Association of Realtors. Of course if Oklahoma would lower the corporate tax rate and stop pushing out industry we might have a chance.
Doug, Midwest City - Jul 5, 2009 at 9:38 am
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C'Mon okies..tell me about how wonderful it is here....the spewing of "low unemployment" numbers don't really mean a whole lot when most okies are working 2 jobs or more to get by, the men are losing their jobs and the families are trying to survive on the womans secretarial pay.....
paul, yukon - Jul 5, 2009 at 5:05 am
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