Women and men have held different jobs from as far back as we can remember and only recently within the 20th century are we starting to see some form of equality. While justifications of the determination of sex segregation in paid work remain incomplete, the consequences for gender inequality are clear.
The career choice process occurs throughout the life cycle as men and women make a series of decisions that have professional consequences. While maybe back in the 1950’s it was excepted for the woman to stay at home and raise the family while the man went off to work every day that is just not the case today.
Not Just a Pretty Face
A great example of crossing the gender line would be to look at modeling. While models have been around for generations, the male model was far and few to come by until the 1990’s when Calvin Klein snapped Mark Wahlberg in his underwear. Up until this, a male model was usually seen as a prop but the ’90s proved that these men were not just another pretty face.
Finding success as a male model can also be done today if you find the right niche for you. If you are on the shorter side, you should realize you may never walk the runway, but you can probably do well in catalogs. Men, just like their female counterparts, will feel pressured to look a certain way and are often just as insecure as women. But with the right mindset and determination, you can work to get your start too.
Male Vs. Female Orientated Jobs
Crossing the gender line in the medical field used to be, quite frankly, very sexist — as most people assumed a doctor was a man and a nurse was a woman. This just isn’t the case anymore as more and more men are studying to be registered nurses. Gender-marked job titles such as pilot or cabin crew encourage many of us to think that gender is part of the job’s definition. All nurses wear the same white jumpsuit or blue scrubs so it does not matter that women are said to be more nurturing than men. It is just a stereotype that so many of us have been taught since we were children playing with Barbies and GI-Joes.
Math Is Cool
It has been estimated that between 40 million and 160 million women globally may need to transition between occupations by 2030 and into higher-skilled roles. Many of us already know that more women are needed in the science and medical fields and thankfully there are some programs out there meant to encourage young girls. While math is generally thought of as a male-dominated subject, the STEM fields are looking for women who love numbers. It is said that women will need more support when it comes to acquiring the skills to acquire higher-paid roles.
Pigeonholing hurts both men and women and the fact of designating a job to women and men separately can automatically dimmish its clout. But if you decide to cross the line you may find the risk is worth the reward. Luckily, gender lines are starting to blur, and posts that were once being claimed by only men or women, are now being filled by both — but we still have a long way to go. Hopefully, as time goes on there will come a time where people don’t see gender and just see the qualifications of the person applying for the job which will then and only then warrant them the job.