Blog Post #12

It seems that gender occupational segregation because of the way our society defines masculinity and feminity. These definitions include an assumption of what typical female and male jobs are. For example, some stereotypical female jobs would be administrative work, social work, teaching, and nursing. Stereotypical male jobs would include jobs in technology, science, math, security, and manual labor. People stick to what they have been socialized to think because they feel the “other gender” jobs are harder to break into, it can be challenging, they may have no support, they may gain resentment from their co-workers, and they do not want to stick out in the crowd. Gender socialization helps in the formation of occupational segregation because it labels women as always being sweet, polite, and emotional, as assuming the role of a nurturer, and as not as intellectually capable as their male counterparts. It labels men as strong, dominant, the financial provider, emotionless, and academically savvy. Many institutions play into these stereotypes, furthering occupational gender segregation. Britton gives the example of a prison as an institution that does exactly that. It is generally assumed that women cannot work in the prison system because they cannot handle rowdy inmates and violence. Therefore, prison jobs are considered male jobs because it is assumed that the job requires brute strength, mental strength, and male dominance. People think the job requires these traits because it is also assumed that a male prison is overtly violent, mainly because we match masculinity with violence. Hence, a woman would be powerless to this level of perceived violence as they cannot handle masculine men. Society perceives women as the weaker sex. Jobs in administrative work and secretarial work tend to have mostly female employees because these jobs do not require either physical or mental strength, or academic intelligence. However, I am unsure if this kind of job is segregated because of the institution or because men do not want this kind of work for fear they will be looked down upon.

Women have several advantages if they can break into a male dominated occupation. The biggest advantage is that they will make more money because “male” jobs tend to pay higher then women. They can gain a sense of satisfaction and empowerment from succeeding against the odds. It seems to me that men can chose whether they gain or lose from women entering “their” fields. Women going against the odds and succeeding has a major impact on society. If the men chose not to b bitter about the success of these women, then they can gain. I feel that men can learn from women, just as women can learn from men, in order to have the best of both worlds. Men can definitely gain from the different traits that women bring to the table. However, if men chose to be bitter about it, they will lose. They will lose the opportunity to learn and grow as an employee because they feel that a woman took a job reserved for a man.