Are Women Leaving The Workforce?

I don’t quite understand this New York Times article.

Women seem to be leaving the workforce in droves. They say it’s the bad economy. Don’t bad economies force more women to work who’d otherwise stay home?

Here’s their explanation:

After moving into virtually every occupation, women are being afflicted on a large scale by the same troubles as men: downturns, layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages or the discouraging prospect of an outright pay cut. And they are responding as men have, by dropping out or disappearing for a while.

Now later in the article is how the women they interviewed described their situation:

“If I were a single parent or did not have benefits,” Ms. Samson said, “I would have had to find a job. I could not have gone back to school to get my degree and the promise it holds of a better job.”

It sounds like they’re making a rational choice because they have an alternative stream of income but not that they are “leaving the workforce” per se.

I wonder how many are starting work at home businesses and only “appear” to be leaving the workforce?

Read it for yourself at New York Times