So some have come to call this downturn the “he-cession.” And yet, for all its unprecedented scope and nature, the limited attention and passive response it has received are remarkable. Imagine the outcry if women amounted to roughly three in four lost jobs in this recession…

Government policy has also exacerbated this trend. The stimulus dollars were disproportionately directed away from those who lost the most jobs. The Obama administration estimated early this year that more than four in 10 stimulus jobs were going to women, about twice women’s estimated job losses. There was no major new infrastructure spending, as during the New Deal, in part because women’s groups such as the Nation Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority lobbied hard against the president’s proposed “shovel ready” stimulus program.

The jobless gender gap could exacerbate Democrats historic problems with male voters.