“Women are also benefiting from gains in education and health services in the private sector, Entmacher said, as well as professional and business services, which include temp jobs. For roughly every one job lost in the public sector, women have gained three in the private industry since June 2009.

When it comes to wages , women have actually done better than men in recent years. Women collected $684 in median weekly earnings last year, up from $667 in 2008, said Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Men’s wages, meanwhile, remained stagnant at around $834.

This could be because women’s employment has increased greatly in higher-wage industries like health care, she said. On the flip side, men have lost good paying jobs in manufacturing and construction, which haven’t recovered. Also, women are becoming more educated, which often translates into higher wages.”