The Great Recession disproportionately hit men, particularly blue collar men. Just look up the Great Mancession or look at this chart https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/07/its-not...
https://www.sociologicalscience.com/articles-vol1-12-159/
https://iwpr.org/publications/black-hispanic-women-lag-recov...
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/08/02/comparing-b...
I think a more recent source than in the middle of The Great Recession itself might be more illuminating.
The source cited by your opponent claims that 80% of job losses in the recession were for men's jobs. If you analyze your sources, they disagree with this claim. Respond to that if you care to make any progress.