A study examined the ways in which cyclical changes in the business cycle affect unemployment rates by sex in male-dominated occupations and industries. Using data from the monthly reports on employment and earnings issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1969-1982), the report examined employment rates in selected male-dominated and female-dominated occupations and industries in both peaks and troughs of the economic cycle. These data revealed that the unemployment rate, in male-dominated occupations, is generally higher for women than for men and that this gap varies countercyclically, being greatest during business-cycle troughs. These findings suggest that the traditional approach to viewing women as being protected from the harshest effects of recession by virtue of their concentration in service industries ignores the problem of how business-cycle downturns affect the employment situation of women employed in male-dominated occupations and industries. Data suggest that if women continue to bear more of the burden of an increase in unemployment in male-dominated occupations and industries during periods of economic downturn, then these occupations and industries will remain sex-segregated until legislation emerges to protect women working in such occupations. (MN)