Women are best suited for easy jobs. Men are best suited for hard jobs. Most would deny these statements, yet is this not the mindset within society that has caused the “gendering” of jobs to permeate occupations around the world? In countless cultures, for all of time, women have generally been seen as second class citizens to their male counterparts. The wife stays at home while the husband ventures out and gets the “real work” done, the man is the warrior while the woman is the healer, the boy masters the hard sciences while the girl enjoys literature, etc. In recent years, the world has made leaps and bounds towards breaking down these types of misogynistic walls that have prevented women from deciding their own future for the majority
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The motherly, calm, caring one, the seductive, appearance driven one, and the helper to the male are all common ways in which females in society are viewed and categorized. It would make sense that these attributes prescribed to women would carry over to the jobs that they are frequently employed in. Looking at the list of female common jobs listed earlier, the relationship between the societal views of women and the occupations are extremely evident. The mother is expected to carry most of the weight of childcare, not the father, therefore that thought follows women into the workplace with 97.7% of preschool/kindergarten teachers being female. Men are always the leaders, while women are the accessories that help the men not have to worry about the little things.. This attitude is evident in the job market with 96.9% and 92.7% of women being secretaries or administrative assistants and receptionists, respectively. Women are also expected to always be appearance motivated, and stay on top of their physical presentation while men are given a pass for not giving a thought about their attractiveness. This is most likely why 93.4% of hairdressers and cosmetologists are women. Yet these perceptions of women are not only affecting the jobs they chose, they are affecting the lifespan of the female’s career itself. In an NY Times article, new mother Kerry Devine, explains why she quit her job here in the U.S. yet how in her home country of England things would have been different. “Ms. Devine quit her job after she had her first child, a girl, four years ago, because she thought 12 weeks of maternity leave was too short. Her story would have played out differently, she said, if she had been living in her native England. Like many European countries, Britain offers a year of maternity leave, much of it paid, and protections for part-time workers, among other policies aimed at
The motherly, calm, caring one, the seductive, appearance driven one, and the helper to the male are all common ways in which females in society are viewed and categorized. It would make sense that these attributes prescribed to women would carry over to the jobs that they are frequently employed in. Looking at the list of female common jobs listed earlier, the relationship between the societal views of women and the occupations are extremely evident. The mother is expected to carry most of the weight of childcare, not the father, therefore that thought follows women into the workplace with 97.7% of preschool/kindergarten teachers being female. Men are always the leaders, while women are the accessories that help the men not have to worry about the little things.. This attitude is evident in the job market with 96.9% and 92.7% of women being secretaries or administrative assistants and receptionists, respectively. Women are also expected to always be appearance motivated, and stay on top of their physical presentation while men are given a pass for not giving a thought about their attractiveness. This is most likely why 93.4% of hairdressers and cosmetologists are women. Yet these perceptions of women are not only affecting the jobs they chose, they are affecting the lifespan of the female’s career itself. In an NY Times article, new mother Kerry Devine, explains why she quit her job here in the U.S. yet how in her home country of England things would have been different. “Ms. Devine quit her job after she had her first child, a girl, four years ago, because she thought 12 weeks of maternity leave was too short. Her story would have played out differently, she said, if she had been living in her native England. Like many European countries, Britain offers a year of maternity leave, much of it paid, and protections for part-time workers, among other policies aimed at