However, because of the long-term sustained economic growth engendered by dual-income families, wages have increased. Women have also increasingly sought professional degrees to further their earning power, to the point where they outnumber men on many college campuses across the nation. As the average household income has increased, more goods and services are being purchased overall and prices have gone up -- although the prices of many 'necessary' goods such as food now occupies a smaller percentage of the income of the average middle-class family. Thus the primary result of the expansion of women in the workforce has been its role in "help[ing] fuel economic growth for decades" (Porter 2007). Women still tend to earn less than men. However, this fact has had an unintended positive effect for women in the wake of the recent recession -- because male labor tends to be more expensive, businesses are often more likely to 'let go' males than their female counterparts. And the recession's effects have been disproportionately in male-dominated industries: "Of the 5.1 million jobs that have disappeared, a full 20% have been lost in construction, almost entirely by men. Another 20.6%...

Meanwhile, employment in the female-dominated fields of education and health services has increased by 12% since the recession began. In total, 78% of the jobs lost in this recession have been lost by men" (Eaves 2009). This indicates that traditionally female jobs provide essential services, such as healthcare for an increasingly elderly population, and education. These jobs cannot be easily downsized. These statistics suggest that in the long-term, American women's steadier sources of employment, such as teaching and nursing, may sustain the economy through this difficult period in our nation's economic history.
References

Eaves, Elisabeth. (2009, April 10). In this recession, men drop out. Forbes.

Retrieved February 12, 2010 at http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/09/employment-men-women-recession-opinions-columnists-gender-roles.html

Porter, Eduardo. (2006, March 2).Women in workplace -- trend is reversing the New York

Times. Retrieved February 12, 2010 at http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-03-02/news/17285004_1_stay-at-home-mothers-fathers-spend-more-time-suzanne-bianchi