Romney’s claims about women “misleading and ridiculous,” says Geithner
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney greet supporters during an Illinois GOP primary victory party at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel March 20, 2012 in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took to the airwaves Sunday, attacking Mitt Romney's assertion that joblessness had fallen disproportionately on women during the last few years, the New York Times reported.
The issue is just the latest in a string of political clashes in the battle for female voters in the next presidential election.
Romney has repeatedly said on the campaign trail that women make up 92.3 percent of jobs lost since Obama took office, according to the Times.
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"It's misleading and ridiculous," Geithner told CBS News' "Face the Nation." "It's just a political moment."
The Wall Street Journal wrote data from the Labor Department shows women account for 92.3% of the workers who have lost jobs since Obama came in to office in January 2009.
But several independent fact-checking organizations claim that while technically correct, it's misleading because the year before, men lost more jobs than women.
"The recession started in 2008… It was already a year in the making before President Obama came into office," Geithner said on CBS.
Men lost more jobs at the beginning of the recession because of hits to the construction and manufacturing industries. But more recently women have suffered layoffs at a greater rate due to cutbacks in education and teaching.