Category: Let's talk
Recently I watched a programme about the different sexes and how men and women differ from each other. In this programme they made use of volunteers, and when these volunteers introduced themselves, they also announced what they did for a living. Most noteably, one of the guys was a childminder, and one of the women was a test pilot. And that got me thinking, why is it that, we categorise men and women into certain job types? Traditionally, women are childminders, and men are test pilots, amongst other things, why is it, that when they stray from the norm and do something that is not traditionally a man’s, or a woman’s role, we find it unusual?
Well, it's my opinion that women can be just as good at jobs where you use the mind as a man, electrician, airplane pilot, etcetera. Of course, there some jobs, that involve the muscles, which a woman maybe can't do as well as a man, like jobs that involve heavy strenuous lifting. I think men just always assumed they were to be the bread winners, and women the homemakers. I've for a long time wished there were more women computer tech people, I think they would be easier to deal with and relate to. It's a bit different, but that's one kind of difference I don't think would be bad at all.
wonderwoman
Though the genders do have some biological differences, I think that for the most part, we're not that different. We are, however, socialized differently by parents (the girl baby is cute and the boy baby is strong, for example), peers (playing with dolls is for girls/sissies/gay guys), and society (women are more loving than men, men are pigs, men are less sensitive, men shouldn't cry as much, women cry all the time, ETC.) All these attitudes affect us in one way or another. and of course, there are always exceptions to the stereotypes. Sometimes people go against the stereotypes for the sake of doing so.
I think women can be as well a good test pilot as men. The only reason why we do it - it might still be because earlier women did the work with children (or other social things) and men do things like being pilots, policemen and all that. more ëxciting"jobs. Now today it is different but it might still seem strange.
I think it's got everything to do with the way our society has been built, as has already been pointed out in fact. Men were the bread winners and women stayed home taking care of the family. Hence I think the first natural jobs for women (natural should be in quotes) would have been to work with children in other avenues such as child care, teaching etc. Also I think traditionally women started having babies earlier than they do today and the men were the ones to go out there and educate themselves and so, naturally, again, the jobs requiring less skills fell to the women, waitressing, flight attendants, hair cutting perhaps etc (although that's always been a bit of a mixed field really). The men concentrated on higher education requirement jobs and higher paid jobs (subsequently). I think e.g. the pilot job being a man thing might have a lot to do with the fact that a lot of pilots come out of the u.s. army training and women did not join the army until fairly recently. An army pilot can in fact switch over to a commercial jet in only a few months given that he/she has sufficient training (I was chatting to a woman pilot on my way from Detroit to Charlotte once and she was considering switching over to the 737 jets). I think this goes a long way to explain why we associate some jobs with genders. I think though there is a further element and I think women may be naturally better at some jobs and men at others, just because of the difference between men and women emotionally. I think women communicate better and may be better suited to teaching (not saying all women are good teachers and all en bad ones that's definitely not true) or psychology etc, men, of course, do the muscular jobs (mechanic etc), this just based on society's percetion (note I'm only trying to may be explain how the jobs came about not saying that one gender can't do any of these jobs because I know that's completely untrue). Also I think it's very hard for women to gain entry into a formerly male dominated fields such as flying etc just because of tensions and men's tendency to, well, be different and maintain a male culture and not etting the women get easy entry into their world and perhaps this works the other way around. It's hard to breeak the chains of habit and social perceptions. I think we're doing this now nd the fact that you can pretty much find members of either gender in pretty much every job you cn imagine speaks to this, however we have a long way to go if our ultimate goal is to have equal number of men and women in all fields, women e.g. have apparently lost interest in computer science and IT over the last 10 years, we used to have a lot more women back in the early 90s apparently (we as in the IT industry), I'm not sure why this is actually. And I don't think our goal should be to force equality in the sense that both genders are equally represented in every job, I think our goal is to motiave everyone to persue his/her interests and do well at the job they find most interesting or want to do the most whatever it may be and try not to affect that persons perception of what jobs to choose with gender based roles and idea.s
cheers
-B
That's what I meant.
Wonder woman, I agree with you about the female computer techs, they would be much easier to deal with on so many different levels. as for who should do what in todays society, I think that both men and women should do there share, its not a matter of mens or womens work, its getting men to maybe watch the kids once in a while, and letting the women know that its ok to get a job. In the US that kind of thing is acceptable, but in other parts of the world women are meant to stay barefoot and pregnant until they either can't have anymore children, or they die which ever comes first.