Michelle has some really interesting thoughts on the social implications of the massive relative decline of men in the workforce. This development also seems to moot Linda Hirshman's New York Times op-ed from December:
Mr. Obama compared his infrastructure plan to the Eisenhower-era construction of the Interstate System of highways. It brings back the Eisenhower era in a less appealing way as well: there are almost no women on this road to recovery. ... women constitute about 46 percent of the labor force. And as the current downturn has worsened, their traditionally lower unemployment rate has actually risen just as fast as men’s.
--Jonathan Chait