Later that afternoon, she was laid off after only one year on the job. And she wasn’t alone. A total of 667 first- and second-year teachers in the district were also laid off -- and 70 percent, or 467 of them, were women.

This is a nationwide scenario. At a lopsided rate, women like Akbari are losing their government jobs -- including teaching, executive administrator and child-care posts -- and finding it harder than men to secure new work in the private sector.

While reports a couple years ago talked about a "mancession," the picture has now dramatically shifted -- and not to women's advantage.