C2V wrote:
These days, a woman (or someone often interpreted as one) in a masculine job is often viewed positively - as someone strong and bold, able to step in on the "boys club" and hold her own, someone who is a trailblazer for women's liberation, forging the way for women to be equally accepted with men in jobs across the proverbial board.
Which is all very well - if it went both ways. Which it doesn't seem to.
Male nurses have often been cited as a group who are targeted by this kind of inequality. People automatically assume negative things - that they want to be doctors but aren't capable, that they're effeminate (and that's something a man should be ashamed of apparently) etc.
Men (or people often interpreted as such) in traditionally feminine jobs are viewed as strange, or outright criminal. Just think about men in children's services - people seem to automatically assume they want to rape children and that's the only reason they're interested.
I think it can enforce the inequality, and keep men out of traditionally feminine jobs that they might be interested in or great at, because pushing the proverbial envelope in this way is not "done" the way it is for women.
It just occurred to me because recently I felt uneasy in the job I am currently doing, because it's very gendered.
Anyone working - do you work a gendered job? In opposition or in accordance with your own gender? Anyone else in your workplace defy this? Would you be uncomfortable working a job traditionally dominated by the opposite sex, or would you not care or even enjoy it? Do you think there should be this gendering going on, or should the workforce be genderblind? Insights?
I'm in a male dominated field. It would not be anything I would have thought much about if it not for the unwarranted sexism I have occasionally experienced throughout my life in general. I have not experienced any sexual harassment in the workplace, however, and I am at a point in my life where I will not put up with either, even if it costs me my job, because I will not stay silent at the expense of women who come after me, and I have seen too many projects fail due to sexist and inappropriate behavior. Of course if I observed unwarranted sexism against a male, I will also not tolerate it. People should be seen for their skills and talents in the work place, not their sex.
I think the reason men are sometimes looked down upon when they enter female dominated fields does not have anything to do with the man himself, but the idea that traditionally female jobs are inferior to, or less important than traditionally male jobs, and I think society does not understand why a man would aim for something that society views as inferior. This is the whole "patriarchy hurts men too" notion that you hear some academics talk about. In a patriarchal hierarchy, men and women cannot occupy the same place. A woman must be less, and a man must be more, and that which a woman does is viewed as less, and that which a man does is viewed as more, and both men and women are equally condemned when they attempt to disrupt the status quo. We are just starting to move away from this.
Personally I think people should pursue whatever field they are interested in.
24 Jun 2017, 9:57 am
