Rosie the Riveter redux: Women on track to dominate the job market

For most of the last century, the idea of a female-dominated or even gender-balanced workforce would have seemed almost laughable. Even with a torrent of Rosie the Riveters and Mary Tyler Moores finding their place in the workforce, "breadwinners" were still a male-dominated group. However, with job demographics shifting and the recession devastating traditionally male industries, it seems like we may well be approaching a world in which a family's primary wage-earner is just as likely to be female.

Much of the shift between men and women in the job market is an outgrowth of the transition between jobs traditionally held by men and those that have been dominated by women. 20 percent of the jobs that have disappeared over the past year were in construction, a male-dominated profession. Similarly, manufacturing and finance, both male-dominated industries, took big hits. All told, in fact, 74 percent of the job losses since the end of 2007 have fallen on the heads of men, or at least male-dominated industries.