The US economy lost 140,000 jobs in December. All of them were held by women

The economic recovery is backtracking, and women — particularly women of color — are bearing the brunt of the job losses.

For three months, they held more jobs than men in the US economy — something that had only occurred one other time in history, during a short period in 2009 and early 2010. Sure, there were still many other gender gaps: women were more likely than men to work part-time, for example, because of caregiving responsibilities at home, and even among full-time workers, they earned on average only 81 cents for every dollar of their male peers.