We often call for more gender equality in the economy and the workplace, but it's not always clear what that would mean. In the Times, one woman lays it out: "Only money will give women power."

Since men make up more than half of the participants in the labor market (and make more money), they were unsurprisingly harder hit by the recession. Surprisingly, though, they're now better off during the recovery than many women.

In the NY Times blog Economix, Nancy Folbre tackles the idea women are "nicer" than men, which hurts how much they earn for a living. Good times!

Melissa Gira Grant is a writer and activist who spoke yesterday at a panel on sex work and feminism at the Civil Liberties and Public Policy's 2010 Reproductive Justice Conference. Before she spoke to them, though, she spoke to me.

The only thing that stresses me out getting married is how much a wedding costs. And apparently, reports The New York Times, paying for the celebration often falls on the bride, the groom, their parents and grandparents.

"We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all," says Brian Griffiths, Goldman Sachs International Economic Adviser. But when does the inequality end? Noreena Hertz, rogue economist and capitalist reformer, says now.

The World Economic Forum released its annual Gender Gap Index yesterday, and Iceland — that's Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, not only a lady, but the world's first openly gay leader, at left — kicks everybody else's ass at gender equality.

As the recession marches on, a number of news outlets have begun to examine the data surrounding issues of gender. Their conclusion? Women, more than ever, are becoming major players in the workforce. But what does this actually mean?

Yesterday, the Guardian published a piece on the fates of asylum seekers in these tough economic times. Forbidden from working or otherwise supplementing their meager allowance from the state, 31,500 people are mired in poverty, stuck in limbo.

Hot on the heels of Why Women Have Sex comes an investigation into another aspect of the mysterious behavior of Woman: why she buys shit.

Ditto for anything using the term "Frugalista." And any other fucking thing I read about how "trendy" it is to be financially conscious. I'm not on trend, damn it, I'm fucking broke!

Jenny Sanford has sold an "inspirational memoir" to Random House, and on CBS's The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies goes from bad marriage to awesome legal career. But not all women pick up their lives — or careers — so easily.

Sean O'Grady of Independent Minds has a snarky sexist gem of a retort to UK politician and Labour Party Chair Harriet Harman's assertion that more women in boardrooms would be better for companies. He says, hell no, "girls."

Well-known tool Tucker Carlson is really upset that doctors who perform abortions are charging for their services! He calls it "enriching" themselves. I call it being hypocritical and disingenuous, like most of the right-wing on this issue.

Today the minimum wage in the United States goes up to $7.25 an hour. Of course, some people will argue that such an increase will hurt the economy, overlooking the fact that there's plenty of good news for women.

Today on Salon, Tracy Clark-Flory focuses on the recession-driven upswing among women who become sex workers. This time, she finds, it isn't always the women on the margins of the economy who are going there: it's those in the middle-class.

Sales are up at David's Bridal. Brides "pick through the dresses like they're shopping for groceries," notes The Big Money. We forgot that women are supposed to go wedding-dress shopping by palanquin. [TBM]

Right now, working Americans that have children get 12 unpaid weeks away from their jobs — as long as they work for big companies and worked there for 12 months prior. Otherwise, they're screwed.

If it didn't already suck that health insurance companies charge us all more for the privilege of having uteri, it turns out that most of us don't even have the money to properly insure them.

American's health insurance companies are so scared that the (inefficient, bureaucracy-ridden) government will be able to create a health insurance program that actually, you know, covers people that they're now offering to treat women equitably.