Male Dominated Professions better?

Post Reply New Topic

I think male dominated professions, like: Engineering, Accounting, Medicine, Computer stuff, anything male dominated really, even Law Enforcement and Firefighting, are better career fits for Aspies versus female dominated professions, because in general women have better social skills than men. Does anybody else agree or completely disagree? I think most female dominated professions are bad fits. Really bad fits. I'm a woman, just turned 27, and in my earlier years was steered towards female professions(think nursing, Occupational and Speech Therapy, and education). Female professions do not have lots of Aspies, and male dominating professions, from accounting to Law Enforcement are full of people with awful social skills. Just my opinion.

Okay, being a doctor vs. being a nurse (and today in America, maybe about 20% of nurses)

I think a doctor is judged whether he or she gets the big centrality right, whereas a nurse is often judged on all kinds of little ticky-tack things, like whether you leave your work area clean and organized for the next person. And a doctor is likely to be cut more slack on those kind of things.

If a doctor has sensory issues, it's easier for him or her to adjust the work area. And not as easy for the person working as a nurse.

I'm a librarian, and it's a female-dominated profession that is perfect for Aspies.

I'm a female aspie and I am and always have been into artistic things like crafting, drawing and writing. Of course most people who do that for a living and are good at it are male as well, along with chefs and clothing tailors and other nonsense. I could never be a doctor in spite of my interest in medical things or love of justice., or a police officer. Having to deal with people who are really sick and oozing all kinds of bodily fluids, cutting people open, dead bodies, family members in grief, escaped criminals - that would all be beyond my worst nightmares. Of course my pastimes really need to be done in a quiet, relaxing environment without all kinds of distractions or people around. Simulation games are the closest I'll ever get to having the male-dominated careers I can only dream about.

True librarian is an awesome profession for Aspies. I've heard that librarians have gone fairly digital though? Is this correct? Like you can submit a query to a database and have the librarian email you back references? And I would definitely pick doctor over nurse for an Aspie any day. I think a lot of doctors are possibly on the spectrum. I'm an artist as well, just not professionally.

I don't understand why anyone would think that librarian is a good Aspie job. The librarians I see must do a lot of customer service and task-switching.

The ones you see likely aren't librarians. In large public or academic libraries the people at the circulation desk are paraprofessionals or student workers. There are a lot of actual librarians who work behind the scenes. I work in digital archiving, and on an average workday I only interface with my cube-mate and my boss, and never any members of the public.

I do better in more "traditionally male" jobs because that is where most of my aptitudes and enjoyment reside. Jobs utilizing visual spacial skills, mechanical inclination, maps and schematics, and science are more my type of thing. I fail at social oriented jobs and they stress me out. Retail and customer relation jobs are living hell for me.

I work in a male-dominated profession, because my aptitudes and interests lie in traditionally "male" areas. I'm one of 3 women in a dept of approximately 40; when I attend professional conferences, I am typically one of a handful of women in the room.

While I am a capable, productive, fully-qualified professional, before I was seen as a colleague and a damned good one at that, I was first seen as a woman...a woman who apparently has an extraordinarily youthful appearance and really funky social skills for a woman. (From my perspective, they are the ones who are weird and I am normal. )

Until they got to know me, on account of my looks and my ineptitude re: the games associated with continually jockeying for "better" position in the pecking order, I was treated like a kid or a pet. They don't know that I'm probably an Aspie; I received a great deal of treatment, including medication, for depression (which I believe is a comorbidity to the Asperger's), so I am able to manage most of my tendencies quite well. To them, I'm just extraordinarily detail-oriented, organized, candid, etc.,...until someone pisses me off, and then that person apparently does not know what flipped my switch (it isn't like I didn't tell them). Fortunately, that happens rarely (most people aren't out to press someone else's buttons). Equally fortunately, I have learned to modulate my emotional response so that I don't just "blow up" at them. Even though I don't tell them all to f-themselves, storm out and punctuate my exit with a slamming door, there is zero doubt in their mind that I am well and truly pissed off.

Until they got used to me, it was like going to the mechanic's or tire shop every damn day. As I mentioned before, before I was seen as a colleague, I was viewed as a woman...and therefore when I speak, men hear "Charlie Brown" noises rather than a colleague who has identified a prospective "red flag" issue and is bringing it to their attention.

Now they know me. For the most part, they appreciate my quirks, because my quirks include things which are important to them, such as:
- recognizing the broken-down delivery truck we've just passed on the shoulder of the highway as the delivery truck that's just been at our main office and is en route to our satellite office, and having sense enough to call the shop,
- my uncanny ability to remember the name and county of residence of individuals associated to specific jobs we've done,
- my knack for noticing that a door isn't locked, gate not shut, tool box not closed, cord not connected, or a screw hasn't been picked up when cleaning up the job site, etc.

fwiw, men play social games, too. Their BS is just different and more easily understood to me than women's BS. For the most part, men are more willing to "agree to disagree" and stay out of each other's paths. They also seem to get over it faster, and with them, generally "when it's done, it's done." They also don't get their periods or become pregnant, so I never have to hear about PMS, pregnancy hormones or menopause as an excuse for outright b-itchy bad behavior.

Male dominated careers: Engineering, Accounting, Medicine, Computer stuff

From my experience as a neurotypical ex-accountant, I would say that it depends on the job and company. If you're a CPA doing financial statement audits at a client's location, you will need to ask questions of the client's staff and interact with co-workers and supervisors on a daily basis to coordinate work, get advice on difficult problems, and to review your completed work. By contrast, I know payroll clerks who worked quietly from their cubicle, and payroll managers who worked from home and rarely needed to speak to anyone.

My dad was an engineer, and I have worked on projects with engineers, and I would say that in today's world, strong communication skills are more the norm due to often working on teams to complete a project.

My best advice, if you're trying to figure out what career to choose, is to google search "what's your job like": you will get several results of people sharing what they actually do every day on their job (the ask meta filter result looked promising).

While you're reading about different careers, focus in on the jobs where your strengths are in high demand and where the social skills requirements are manageable for you.

I wish there was an easy filter to apply (male-dominated equals good job fit) to the job search, but you really need to dig into the details because two jobs may have the same job title but be completely different in the job responsibilities: librarian at a public library vs a librarian at a major research university, for example, as noted above.

Glenn Laniewski
author, Why your child with autism needs to get a volunteer job before high school, and how to help them get one.

There is a certain kind of aspie who will do well in firefighting/law enforcement. Ones who have very logical thinking, but have at least an acceptable level of social skills and can manage stress.

From a sensory point, you have sirens wailing, if your a driver, your driving a huge piece of equipment at high speeds, and having to make a path through traffic. Scenes are loud, and you have to be able to be constantly evaluating everything. An entry team can find a house going from manageable to "get the f**k out before the room flashes (everything catches fire at once)" in a very short time.

From a social skills standpoint, you have to have them. Your dealing with the public. Your dealing with very emotional people, who are having a very bad day. You have scared children, families melting down because granny might not come home this time, people who are so traumatized their reaction is to fight you, people who aren't in their right minds and all kinds of drunks, druggies and homeless. If you don't have the social skills, you make the situation 10 times worse. Now, you are in a position of authority, so you have some flexibility, it's not like meeting people in a bar, and you can get mean if you have to, but you have to take control, but be able to be empathetic to people because they are hurting.

I am a woman and took engineering graduating in 1980. I was one of three woman in my class. I found engineering which morphed into computer programming to be a very social job with lots of interaction with others, team work, client meetings, employee social functions. I found it very hard that way. I eventually had my own small company, and that was better, fewer people to interact with. It certainly was not an occupation where you can sit on your own cubicle and work on your own!

That being said, maybe there are those who work in isolation, but I certainly never encountered any jobs like that.

I retrained after many years as an engineer/computer programmer and now I work as a medical transcriptionist. I work from home over an internet connection to the hospital computer system. I only have to listen to other people. No interaction with others. Sensory bliss!

Being a woman will help astronomically if you choose an FD or Police career; but you have to also deal with the fact it'll take longer for the people to accept you. There are some old hats in the FD who will never accept that a woman can drive a fire engine, or advance a hose line into a burning building.

You get to prove them wrong.

I have worked in a library in Cleveland for 30+ years. My time working with the public was hard, but it forced me to grow in my social skills and coping mechanisms. My department at its height averaged 45-60 patron interactions per day. I came home tired and ready to cry several times a week. My boss was not helpful nor were most but not all of my co-workers. A saving grace in the job was that I loved hunting down the answers to questions. I loved to learn. I became good at finding answers to business and economic related questions. That ability get the answer forced my boss to give me passing evaluations. Another saving grace was that I managed not to alienate the co=workers who were my friends and I was honest and frank about my limits. When my co=workers got promoted over me I congratulated them and made sure I was their chief cheer leader. I wasn't a toady and did not kiss butt, but I was a sincere friend and a good loser. That got me friends who could protect me when I screwed up.My friends made the difference between being transferred over being fired.

That day did come after I yelled at at a patron, (I was on over load and should not have come in on that day. You must know when to not come in to work.) I put my co-worker in the impossible situation of firing me or saving me. She gave me the option taking disability or being transferred . I chose transfer. I used my last favor and she sent me to Tech Services with the understanding survive there or be fired. After a very hard and steep learning curve after which I still did not become a good cataloger I got off probation and secured a full time position in tech services. God was kind I made some friends I got skilled in serials cataloging and got promoted to Senior Cataloger. The pressure from that promotion caused another break down. This time my supervisor told me to apply for Family and Medical Leave Act and see a shrink. I did. My shrink diagnosed me as an Asperger syndrome person. All up to this point in my life I just thought I was depressed or some kind of funny looking kid. I was never good at girl guy relationships. God was kind to give me friends who were loyal and protective of me. Despite some failures as a Senior Cataloger my boss bass allowed me to work and grow as a professional.

Based on my experience libraries are a good job for those of us with Asperger syndrome. You need to make friends work hard, and be prepared to put up with hardship. Faith in God doesn't hurt either. Volunteer at a library you want to work at as means of getting visibility for future interviews. This may not be possible if the library is unionized. Once you are in a paid position realize you will be teased you will not understand everything socially that's going on. you will need to accept this and try to ignore minor stuff. You can't run to your supervisor for every insult. Pick out whats major. When in doubt wait until you can ask your shrink. Make use of FMLA. if you follow these suggestions you stand a good chance of having long career in libraries.

I can answer similar to SolinaJoki and MissMaria. Engineering was a pretty good fit, but, I do get unduly frustrated when people don't do things they should be doing (construction industry is rife with 'if I can get away with it, I will' behavior, hence the billions of dollars of innefficiences every year in this country). That attention to detail made me a good PM when I had the opportunity to oversee projects, but, it does add to the stress. My coworkers were great, though... sure I was seen as a woman first till I earned my street cred. But, we were all just a bunch of weirdos. Engineers and programmers.

I do like the others who've said that researching and finding answers was something they loved.
Same here. Researching or troubleshooting, etc. I find answers. Nice to see the pride and passion in the others who've stated that.

I don't want to discourage people from working with women, if an industry is their true calling. But, I admit, when it comes to networking and social events, I still tend to gravitate toward the men since they don't make me feel as uncomfortable as women tend to do.
I've never had a guy ask me to smile more.

i worked in female dominated jobs..teaching, office assistant
they all suck
there is umpteen politics amongst women
even if you dress well one day they feel jealous
they pass comments and give a stare

but working in male dominated field i feel
men try to take advantage of me
they pass comments, they try to trick me
etc etc

i am too scared of that happening

i wish i was artistic so i could start my own art/craft business