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Thanks to a bunch of great e-mails from readers (you are a smart and articulate bunch), I posted a piece about the recession and its potentially deleterious effect on marriages. I've got a follow-up question: If your husband or wife has been laid off, or if you have, is that affecting how you and she or he divide up who picks up the kids, does the dishes, takes out the trash, pays the bills? Is the person who's newly staying home putting in more hours on what's known as the "second shift"—the time for domestic chores that working spouses put in at either end of the day? Traditionally, women have shouldered more of this burden. Even as their rates of full-time employment have risen, the time-use numbers showing that men do less around the house have stubbornly refused to budge. I wonder if this round of layoffs is changing that. Please send your stories to doublex.slate@gmail.com, and I look forward to hearing them. E-mail may be quoted in Slate unless the writer stipulates otherwise. If you want to be quoted anonymously, please let me know.
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On Sunday, the NYT business section ran a piece called "Why the Sting of Layoffs Can Be Sharper for Men." It's got some not particularly evidence-based generalizations about how men are harder hit because their self-esteem is based on professional success more than women's. Also more interesting, if anecdotal, reports from psychiatrists that increasing numbers of men are coming in to talk about anxiety and depression related to the economic crisis. I'm skeptical about the broad claim that men feel the pain of layoffs more than women do. But I'm curious about how the downturn is playing out along gender lines. Are male egos collapsing because of the crisis? Are female ones? How are women supporting their laid-off or unemployed male partners, and how are men supporting the jobless women in their lives? If any of you readers have a story along these lines that you're up for sharing, please send it to doublex.slate@gmail.com. E-mail may be quoted in Slate unless the writer stipulates otherwise.
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