Glass Escalators Essay

More and more men are entering female-dominate professions like nursing, teaching, and social work, trying to balance life with financial stability, job security, family time, and personal life. This is good news for men’s health, family life, and self-preservation, but where does it leave women? In a world full of glass escalators women are watching male counter parts surpass them in job positions and salaries, even in female dominate fields. The glass escalator creates negativity in the workforce but there is a positive; men surpassing women in a female dominate career can be seen as positive because along with influx of men comes higher salaries within those fields. For generations women have stood by the ill and taught the children of our …show more content…
Goldberg stated, “When you look at senior management, you tend to see men disproportionately represented. So while there may be less than 5% of all nurses who are male, you see a much larger percentage than 5% in senior-level positions like hospital administrators,” (Goudreau). In order for the glass escalator to be eliminated our evolving society cannot only look at men dominating careers; the bigger picture is the social constraints put on both men and women at home, in public, and in the work force. The million-dollar question is, what are women to do about men riding the glass escalator in female-dominate professions? The most obvious answer is women need to stand their ground, fight for equality, and celebrate any destruction of social constraint in the work place. The less obvious answer is women need pause and realize men coming into female roles are not all bad. The male verse female employment shift in female-dominate professions are pulling men out of male dominate professions, brings a higher average income, and adapts to larger expectations/benefits often found in more desirable