In April, Katherine Hook was laid off from her job as an administrative assistant, a title she’s held since graduating from high school in 1968. Now 60, Hook had worked at CenterPoint Engineering in Mechanicsburg, Penn., for 11 and a half years. One day, she was assisting a group of professional engineers and designers. The next, she was told to clear out her desk. “We had no clue, no idea that there was anything wrong,” she says. "I jokingly said to the president, 'You should fire the marketing department,' but he said, 'Oh no, they’re the ones getting us work,'" she recalls. "If they’re getting us work, why am I being let go?" Her duties have now been handed off to one of the designers.

Since the recession technically ended in 2009, all of the weak growth in jobs has gone to men while women’s employment has declined. Men have gained 805,000 jobs, but women have lost a total of 281,000. The percentage of women who have a job hasn’t been this low since 1988. Cuts to state budgets help explain why women are falling behind: In the face of large budget shortfalls, women have lost 343,000 public-sector jobs, accounting for 70 percent of the cuts between June 2009 and June 2011,