Women are on the verge of outnumbering men in the workforce for the first time, a historic reversal caused by long-term changes in womens roles and massive job losses for men during this recession. Women held 49.83% of the nations 132 million jobs in June and theyre gaining the vast majority of jobs in the few sectors of the economy that are growing, according to the most recent numbers available from the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Thats a record high for a measure thats been growing steadily for decades and accelerating during the recession. At the current pace, women will become a majority of workers in October or November. "It was a long historical slog(沉重缓慢的前进)to get to this point," says labour economist Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Womens Policy Research. The change reflects the growing importance of women as wage earners, but it doesnt show full equality, Hartmann says. On average, women work fewer hours than men, hold more part-time jobs and earn 77% of what men make, she says. Men also still dominate higher-paying executive ranks. Women have been a growing share of the once heavily male labour force for nearly a century, recording big bumps during epochal(划时代的)events such as the Depression and World War II. This time, the boost came from a severe recession that has been brutal(无情的)on male-dominated professions such as construction and manufacturing. The only parts of the economy still growing — health care, education and government — have traditionally hired mostly women. That dominance has increased in part because federal stimulus funding directed money to education, health care and state and local governments. The gender transformation is especially remarkable in local governments 14.6 million-person workforce. Cities, schools, water authorities and other local legal power have cut 86,000 men from payrolls during the recession — while adding 167,000 women, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. "Unemployment among men isnt going to last forever," says University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan. "People will move from construction and manufacturing to industries that are creating new jobs." Mulligan expects the portion of jobs held by women to peak slightly above 50% this year, then drop below half when the economy recovers and more men find work. What does the author say about the workforce during this recession?