Courthouse job cuts hit women harder than men

Women have born the brunt of job cuts by Whitman County since the financial collapse of 2008.

The gender of county employees of Whitman County is reported monthly to the federal Department of Labor. Those statistics show 23 fewer women are employed by Whitman County today than were working for the county in September of 2008, when the recession began.

Over that same time span, the number of male employees has increased by seven.

Men have historically out-numbered women on the county’s payroll. As of September, there were 154 men employed by the county and 112 women.

Overall, the county has cut...