Back in April I noted that women are doing most of the heavy lifting in keeping America’s job numbers up under the chaos of professedly man-friendly Trumponomics. Last week’s global economic update from Deloitte points to analysis from economist Mike Konczal finding that women account for all of America’s new jobs since Trump returned to the White House and then some:
…what is interesting is the nature of employment growth: Since January 2025, growth in employment was entirely due to increased employment of women. Meanwhile, male employment was stagnant during that time. Specifically, the number of jobs held by men declined by 6,000 during the past year and a half. Meanwhile, the number of jobs held by women increased by almost 800,000.
Thus, women accounted for more than 100% of job growth [Ira Kalish, “Weekly Global Economic Update: Week of September 21, 2026,” Deloitte, 2026.09.22].
Konczal says women are succeeding while Trump’s misogynist policies are failing:
There are two takeaways here. First the Trump administration is trying to force women out of the workforce under the idea that their tariffs, deportations, and other economic policies are creating a workforce more accommodating to men. Last week, HHS was reported to be drafting a rule that would redirect child care funds away from working parents and toward married parents with a parent raising a child at home. On education, last year’s reconciliation bill capped how much graduate students can borrow unless they are in a “professional degree” program, a definition that initially left graduate nursing off the list and is still in litigation.
I think this is wrong by itself on any number of grounds. But it’s worth dwelling on the fact that they can’t even deliver on the reactionary promise they’ve made. No matter the mess they make of the economy between random trade wars and political pressures on the central bank, they can’t deliver job growth in industries that employ men. And all their “your body, my choice” hate and reaction isn’t putting the toothpaste back in the tube when it comes to women’s active participation in the economic realm. All their effort at a gender vibe shift is in service of a plan that is failing on its own terms.
Second, this is not from women taking on more jobs, or industries becoming more female; this is overwhelmingly, on the order of 84 percent or more, about industries that employ more women growing faster. There will be a conservative spin that this is all about girlbosses, or discrimination against men, or subsidies for working women. There’s no empirical evidence for that. They are simply failing at what they have set out to do [Mike Konczal, “Why Are Women over 100% of Jobs Gained Under Trump’s Second Term?” blog, 2026.09.10].
Women’s dogged ambition amidst Trump’s economic impotence reminds me of the labor dynamic Dolly Parton saw back in 1969: