(Note: I wanted to share this article, written by Erinn Hutkin, which I thought encapsulates “male” and “female” jobs, and how things are slowly changing. – Judi Lansky)
I recently came upon an interview in the Chicago Tribune with Professor Barbara Risman, head of the Sociology Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, on issues of gender and equality in the workplace. Prior to this appointment, she was founding director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at North Carolina State University.
Questioned about the gender gap in the workplace, Prof. Risman says that although women still don’t earn what men earn (75 to 81 per cent of what men earn), it’s a lot better than twenty years ago, so the trend is positive. Women have gone into “male” jobs, but men have not gone into “female” jobs. When men do go into “female” professions such as librarianship or nursing, they tend to move into the higher level positions.
Law and medicine seem to be the most gender integrated. They’ve flipped and become female-dominated, but women are still less likely to be law partners or surgeons (generally the best paid positions in medicine).
Male jobs (now) most open to women are the white collar ones. Blue collar jobs have the least integration. White collar jobs with the least integration are in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) areas. These are growth fields which can offer good opportunities to women and other minorities who have those types of skills.
Blue collar jobs, which can offer very good wages to those who have the right training and skills, still have a cultural stereotype of requiring a tough masculine image and many women don’t think of themselves as fitting that stereotype. There’s still a perception that those workplaces are not very female-friendly.
Prof. Risman concludes that in order to bring more equality to the workplace, we need to develop policies that support women (and men) who have caretaking responsibilities, whether that is for children or older family members. That will be a big step towards leveling the playing field and supporting equality in the workplace.
