Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Trading Places: Unemployed challenging gender roles

Trading Places: Unemployed challenging gender roles
In the article, Rubin introduces Mike Oczkowski 48 years old with a passion for graphic arts that in October 2009 was forced to leave his career of choice because it simply was not paying the bills. He therefore stepped into the career of nursing knowing that it would give him a sense of financial certainty. Rubin argues that with unemployment at nearly 9% desperate Americans are willing to cross the gender divide in order to meet their financial needs. It is more than obvious that women made this movement in order to get into careers such as law and medicine, but Rubin claims that women are making their way into more “segregated fields” like information technology, Criminal Justice, and Fire Science. The author of the article uses Coontz is author of the newly published book "A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American women at the dawn of the 1960s.” Coontz states that women have been much more willing to enter the “male “ fields but it has not been like that at all for men until recent years. This tells us that the crossing of a gender divide in the workplace going both ways is something evolutionary.
I certainly believe that this so called evolutionary change is not under the same circumstances. For instance, women cross the gender divide in order to change the identity of a typical stay at home woman. This recent cross in the gender divide for men was really a case of survival of the fittest. I find it interesting how as Americans we still associate certain jobs with each gender. As a society we tend to segregate by identity. Personally, if the need was present I would enter the field necessary to pay the bills, but I naturally would be opposed to something like nursing. When we take this gender crossing into consideration it becomes clear that maybe the economic situation has not had completely devastating consequences. It remains a possibility that Gender Equality in the work force will eventually be a positive outcome of our current economic crisis.
Do you believe the economic situation is severe enough to where a significant percentage of males are entering those fields as Rubin suggests? Will the crossing of the Gender Divide have any negative effects? If you were in the need to cross the divide what area would you cross into?

20 comments:

  1. I know quite a few men who are going into the nursing field and it doesn't surprise me at all. We do what we need to to get the money we need. As time goes on, the lines between traditionally male and traditionally female occupations are become more and more blurred. Nursing to me does not necessarily seem like a feminine job. I agree that if you were to tell me to think of a nurse, I would naturally picture a female, but male nurses are no longer out of the ordinary. On the flip side, if you were to tell me to think of a doctor, I would naturally picture a male, but again, female doctors are no longer uncommon in today's society. The medical field is not a field i would particularly enjoy, but I would have no problem with going into nursing if I needed the money. I agree that men and women are crossing the gender boundaries for different reasons. For women, working a traditionally male job can seem empowering, while for men, working a traditionally female job can seem degrading. This is because men have traditionally had the power in society. As gender equality becomes more and more prevalent, the gender boundaries converge. As it becomes more and more acceptable, more and more people will branch out until the boundaries no longer exist.

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  2. Now a day there are many male nurses; with the economy down bills are extremely hard to pay. My mom grew up with two choices in the work field, becoming a nurse or a teacher. It was just the way it was in my family. Like Iver said as time goes on the lines between traditional male and female jobs is going away. Jobs have so much more freedom now with what kind of people are being hired, not only with gender but race too. The United States, I feel, has truly accomplished equality with race and gender.

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  3. I feel that the slumping economy has caused a significant amount of occupational changes for many Americans however I am not certain these changes crossed the traditional gender divide. In many cases people are taking any jobs that they can find to support themselves and not necessarily looking to break traditional career trends. The jobs unemployed people take are also dependent on the area they live in. It would not be practical for someone who does not live near a hospital to become a nurse because they would have the moving expenses and costs of schooling. The choice to start an entirely new career is a very involved decision and the economy would have to be in dire shape in order for most people to consider the option. I believe that today’s economy is not the driving factor behind the increasing rate of people crossing the gender divide.

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  4. I personally think that a job does not matter what sex you are it is what you are good at. Who says this is hurtful stereotypes. We must forget these stereotypes because there are going to be girls that are going to be good at math and sciences and it only makes sense that they chooses something in this field. If a man is better at literature and the humanities then they should pursue a career in to that. So to me if a girl wants to be an engineer and a boy wants to be an English professor then I do not see the problem with it and how it could have a positive or negative effect on anyone.

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    1. I completely agree that we should forget the gender stereotypes surrounding the work force and pursue what we are interested in and what we excel in. I believe more people are beginning to believe this too which is why we are seeing more individuals crossing the gender divide. In the past women were not given the opportunities allotted to men. There place was in the home raising the family and taking care of the house. But as a result of the feminist movement women began going to school and entering the work force. Therefore I attribute the increasing numbers of women in the work force and in fields of mathematics and science to the increase in opportunities they have been given, not the decrease in males in those fields. Males already had the opportunities to practice these fields so it only makes sense that these numbers would remain stable while the number of women in these fields would increase.

      With that being said I do think that we are seeing more women going into stereotypically male careers and like wise, men entering stereotypically female careers. We have more freedom to pursue what we are interested in and therefore a broader field of careers to choose from.

      In the case of a bad economy I see no shame in taking a lesser paying job or a male taking a stereotypically female career in order to make ends meet.

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  5. I agree with Iver and Lillian that as time goes on the distinct gender roles that have been defined in the work place are slowly disappearing. However, I’m not quite convinced that the economic crisis has had as big of an impact as the article is trying to insinuate. One statistics particularly sticks out at me and that is when the author points out the fact that one college’s engineering program had more than double in women students, from seven to eight-teen. Sure, when you say the word double it’s pretty impressive but when you look at the fact that the college in reality only gained eleven more female students over the course of four years it indicates that this isn’t a wide spread change. I feel that this subtle change in educational trends is more heavily influenced by our increasingly progressive society rather than the economic crisis. Society use to teach us that men were naturally better at science and math related fields and women were better at domestic fields which is what formed our initial segregation in the working world. As time has gone on this point has been refuted and attempts have been made to counter act the lasting effects of this previous belief system. I don’t doubt the economic crisis has convinced some to change their occupations for security. I feel like if it was the driving force we would be seeing larger numbers of people flocking to a certain field.

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  6. I personally think that the gender divide is largely imaginary, and a remnant of earlier decades. When you think of a firefighter, you are almost certainly think of a male, but there are many females in this field. Nurses? Female, but again, also populated generously by males. Police officer? Male, but females are often cops too. I attribute a large portion of this misconception to movies and television. Occupations are usually played by their stereotypical gender role, simply because that's the way it has always been done.

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    1. It's interesting that you bring up the occupational words that are gender neutral, as in, a firefighter instead of a fireman. I think a lot of the times we use language that can be considered sexist and reinforce these gender stereotypes even though we may not mean any harm by it. I am definitely guilty of using "chairman" or "police man" instead of the more equitable terms.

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  7. I don’t think that the economic crisis is going to radically change the gender percentages of the workplace. There is no hard evidence of this. This article is showing the view of one person. 20 years ago a typical engineering company had 80% men; 20 years later if you looked at the same statistic it would be identical. When people cross the gender divide they aren’t going to hurt the workplace rather helps it. If you have a primarily male dominated environment they may not be able to find things that will appeal to the opposite gender. Diversity is key to any workplace. If I had to cross the gender barrier I would probably become a teacher. They make a good pay and get summers off.

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  8. I don't think that the economic hardship will cause many people to switch gender roles. Women are starting to do jobs that men do and vice versa. Engineering used to be only male. Now women are starting to become engineers. This shows how the gender divide is either going away or even gone in some cases. I think that people realize that if they are good at something and can make a living off of doing it, then they will most like do it, even if it is considered a job for another sex. I would have no problem becoming a nurse if I was able to make a comfortable life doing it.

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  9. I don't think that the economic hardship will cause many people to switch gender roles. Women are starting to do jobs that men do and vice versa. Engineering used to be only male. Now women are starting to become engineers. This shows how the gender divide is either going away or even gone in some cases. I think that people realize that if they are good at something and can make a living off of doing it, then they will most like do it, even if it is considered a job for another sex. I would have no problem becoming a nurse if I was able to make a comfortable life doing it.

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  10. The tough economic situation that has been ongoing in our country has been devastating to millions of citizens. So yes, the economic situation is severe enough to which males can enter "feminine" jobs. Although, males may feel that is may be a hit to their pride, but it shouldn't be. Our culture establishes career fields with sex divisions that in the recent generation has been not so apparent. Our generation is beginning to realize both sexes are capable of fufilling any career.

    The crossing of the Gender Divide may have some negative effects. Jobs that have always carried a feminists connotation such as; teachers, nurses, and secretaries may become less open to women. This could cause more woman to be out of jobs. But it could always give women an opprotunity to move their careers into a more male dominant field. If I was to cross the gender barrier, I would try to fufill something in military.

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  11. Controversial and interesting as it is, this particular topic raises many questions. The first is why do men cross over to the female side reluctantly while women often do so with a high head. Well no more than 60 years ago women were considered second class citizens. It has only been through the last few decades that they have mad their way into what were considered masculine and have made a stand in their fields. Nevertheless, there is a very interesting concept in sociology which explain how women in a workplace dominated by men, face what is known as the glass ceiling. This is a social construction which assures that even though women may be performing better than men in the workplace, the women may never reach the top positions of power which the men enjoy. Also women who are soft in the workplace might be crushed by their male peers, and the ones who are to dedicated would be considered uptight. Because of the natural supposition that men are the dominant sex, it may seem unworthy for them to enter female dominated fields of work such as nursing or high school education. However, men who do decide to venture in such jobs usually become the favorites of male superiors, and will naturally be promoted above their female coworkers. We live in a time were women perform equally or as good as men, yet men still enjoy the majority of positions of power.

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  12. In my opinion the economic situation is not severe enough for us to freak out and start changing our career paths. But since the article by Rubin explains the trends of what is happening, I can’t argue the facts. But if in my opinion the economy were, I still don’t think changing picking a career path based on numbers is a good decision. First off if you don’t like it and don’t believe in it, then you probably shouldn’t pick that as your career. The best way to do things is pick a career you are interested in and stand out to employers that way. But if the situation is really that bad, and there are no more options on the table I guess picking a job where the numbers are in your favor is actually a smart choice. Because it gives you better odds at getting a job.

    Also I don’t think that the crossing of the gender divide is because of the economy. I think it is because people are changing with the times. More women go to work instead of staying at home and taking care of the kids and house. I feel this isn’t solely based on financial needs, but it is caused by the fact that times have changed, and people are doing what their passion is. There is becoming a less of a gender divide in jobs, but I don’t believe that this is caused by the economy. So hopefully the economy will start to get better in time to come.

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  13. I think that the economic situation is quite severe and there have been a number of people who I know personally that have changed their major because of the economy. If it weren't for this economy, there would be more people doing what they enjoy and not a well paying in demand job so they can put food on the table. No to say that there aren't people who enjoy what they are doing right now. Now, if it's significant enough to the point where males begin entering non traditional male jobs is something I don't think is true at all. They are taking whatever jobs they can, be it the social norm or not.
    Crossing the gender divide shouldn't have any negative effects because gender is a socially constructed thing. If gender roles are crossing, then over time the gender roles will just have to change as the person above said, it's because "people are changing with the times" If I were to cross the gender divide, I suppose I'd go for nurse as well.

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  14. I think our economic situation is pretty severe, but I do not think that males are crossing the gender divide because they feel they have to. I have a close friend who wants to be a nurse and he has always wanted to. He feels as though that's what he wants to do as a career. More guys are open to the jobs that were stereotyped for the other gender now than they have been in the past.
    Eventually, I think that the crossing of the gender divide will get pretty close to being split 50-50 between males and females for most careers. I don't feel as though it will do any harm or have any negative effects because as more women strive for a "man's"job, more men will strive for a "woman's" job.

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  15. With the economy being the way it is, I feel like it is a good thing that more and more people are starting to cross that gender divide. If more people start doing jobs that we once thought of as being only for a specific gender, then the economy could get better over time. Jobs would be filled, not as many people would be jobless, and less people wouldn't be worried about what other people think. I can't really think of any negative effects that would happen if that gender divide is crossed. Life can be tough and you can't always do what you want, sometimes you have to take a job that you don't even want to take. I think people at first started crossing the gender divide because of the economy, but as more people did that the more weren't afraid to take that jump and do a job they actually like.

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  17. I believe that the current economic situation in America has produced a desperate need for a source of income. If I had a family that is in dire need of money in order to pay the bills, mortgage, necessities, etc. and that responsibility rests on my shoulders, I would suck up my ego and wear the proverbial dress to earn the income needed to sustain my family’s needs. Crossing the gender divide for obtaining jobs might have the negative effects of workplace discrimination as well as being the target of jokes made by your friends. However this is 2012 not 1952, so the chances of people endangering your family and home are very slim. If I were to cross into a predominantly female field and look for a job in that section, I would become a nurse, since the medical field has always interested me.

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  18. I believe that the economic situation is severe enough that many people are males are entering into female dominated fields. Even without the economic crisis, many males are also becoming nurses due to the high demand and job certainty. Many people would rather have a great paying job and job security over anything else. I don't think there will be any negative effects due to this transition. The only negative effect could be the period in which people would have to get accustomed to this change. If I had to cross into one of the female dominated fields, I would become a nurse. There are countless benefits to becoming a nurse, and the future of this job field is even more optimistic.

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