[quote]
HOUSTON — Wearing brick-red scrubs and chatting in Spanish, Miguel Alquicira settled a tiny girl into an adult-size dental chair and soothed her through a set of X-rays. Then he ushered the dentist, a woman, into the room and stayed on to serve as interpreter.
A male dental assistant, Mr. Alquicira is in the minority. But he is also part of a distinctive, if little noticed, shift in workplace gender patterns. Over the last decade, men have begun flocking to fields long the province of women.
Mr. Alquicira, 21, graduated from high school in a desolate job market, one in which the traditional opportunities, like construction and manufacturing, for young men without a college degree had dried up. After career counselors told him that medical fields were growing, he borrowed money for an eight-month training course. Since then, he has had no trouble finding jobs that pay $12 or $13 an hour.
He gave little thought to the fact that more than 90 percent of dental assistants and hygienists are women. But then, young men like Mr. Alquicira have come of age in a world of inverted expectations, where women far outpace men in earning degrees and tend to hold jobs that have turned out to be, by and large, more stable, more difficult to outsource, and more likely to grow.
“The way I look at it,” Mr. Alquicira explained, without a hint of awareness that he was turning the tables on a time-honored feminist creed, “is that anything, basically, that a woman can do, a guy can do.”
After years of economic pain, Americans remain an optimistic lot, though they define the American dream not in terms of mansions and luxury cars but as something more basic — a home, a college degree, financial security and enough left over for a few extras like dining out, according to a study by the Pew Center on the States’ Economic Mobility Project. That financial security usually requires a steady full-time job with benefits, something that has become harder to find, particularly for men and for those without a college degree. While women continue to make inroads into prestigious, high-wage professions dominated by men, more men are reaching for the dream in female-dominated occupations that their fathers might never have considered.
The trend began well before the crash, and appears to be driven by a variety of factors, including financial concerns, quality-of-life issues and a gradual erosion of gender stereotypes. An analysis of census data by The New York Times shows that from 2000 to 2010, occupations that are more than 70 percent female accounted for almost a third of all job growth for men, double the share of the previous decade.
That does not mean that men are displacing women — those same occupations accounted for almost two-thirds of women’s job growth. But in Texas, for example, the number of men who are registered nurses nearly doubled in that time period, rising to 22,532 from 12,709, and increasing the percentage of male nurses to 10.5 percent, from 8.4 percent. Men make up 23 percent of Texas public schoolteachers, but almost 28 percent of first-year teachers.
The shift includes low-wage jobs as well. Nationally, two-thirds more men were bank tellers, almost twice as many were receptionists and two-thirds more were waiting tables in 2010 than a decade earlier.
Even more striking is the type of men who are making the shift. From 1970 to 1990, according to a study by Mary Gatta, the senior scholar at Wider Opportunities for Women, and Patricia A. Roos, a sociologist at Rutgers, men who took so-called pink-collar jobs tended to be foreign-born non-English speakers with low education levels — men who, in other words, had few choices.
Now, though, the trend has spread among men of nearly all races and ages, more than a third of whom have a college degree. In fact, the shift is most pronounced among young, white, college-educated men like Charles Reed, a sixth-grade math teacher at Patrick Henry Middle School in Houston.
Mr. Reed, 25, intended to go to law school after a two-year stint with Teach for America, but he fell in love with the job. Though he says the recession had little to do with his career choice, he believes the tough times that have limited the prospects for new law school graduates have also helped make his father, a lawyer, more accepting.
Still, Mr. Reed said of his father, “In his mind, I’m just biding time until I decide to jump into a better profession.”
[/quote]
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/business/increasingly-men-seek-success-in-jobs-dominated-by-women.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp[/url]
I am disappointed that female nurses no longer come to you to give you handjobs, but rather, male nurses.
I could have sworn this was about men actually going into a real field that a bunch of women were standing in.
Back to bed I guess.
[QUOTE=shian;36051967]
I am disappointed that female nurses no longer come to you to give you handjobs, but rather, male nurses.[/QUOTE]Some of us enjoy that. So hush
And this is a surprise, why? Exactly?
[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;36052116]And this is a surprise, why? Exactly?[/QUOTE]
did you not even read
dominated by woman
as in jobs a woman would have
it shows that men are showing more diversity and aren't going for everything to be masculine and going with the career of their choice regardless of if it's a woman's job
[QUOTE=The First 11'er;36052202]did you not even read
dominated by woman
as in jobs a woman would have
it shows that men are showing more diversity and aren't going for everything to be masculine and going with the career of their choice regardless of if it's a woman's job[/QUOTE]
and we've seen exactly the same trend of women moving into historically male orientated jobs.
This whole concept of male and female jobs is fucking stupid as it is.
[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;36052254]and we've seen exactly the same trend of women moving into historically male orientated jobs.
This whole concept of male and female jobs is fucking stupid as it is.[/QUOTE]
Construction work usually is a male job because it requires a lot of muscle that males have that females don't.
I read the "dominated by women" part first and got a bit too excited.
Not long now until we see Queen George of Britain.
[QUOTE=JamesRaynor;36052304]Construction work usually is a male job because it requires a lot of muscle that males have that females don't.[/QUOTE]
that's mainly because females don't feel a need to exercise as much as men due to the idea that they won't be able to attain the amount of strength required for a "man's job", whereas if you're skewing a particular job towards the male sex you're perpetuating it by making males keep fit for the job
if a female kept as fit as any other builder they'd likely be able to do just as well as a male, what you really need to do is convince women that they're capable of doing traditionally male jobs and they will start working out so they can keep doing them, it's not like they're incapable of growing muscle
[QUOTE=AceOfDivine;36052114]Some of us enjoy that. So hush[/QUOTE]
But they were very rough with my balls!
This is straying a bit from the article, but personally I believe in equal opportunity, not equal outcome. Men and women should be given the equal opportunity to enter whichever work field they like, but of course men and women have different interests so some jobs are dominated by a gender.
Just because a woman can do a job doesn't mean she wants that job.
I thought the idea of male and female jobs was pretty much dead. I am sad now.
I think this is great.
Gender roles and patriarchy slowly fading away as human progression and society advances.
Finally we break the glass floor!
Seems there has been an increase in the idea of a "New Man" amongst society's men. They seem to be taking a step away from their traditional masculinities and instead focus on emotions instead of strength and being the breadwinner.
I've tried this a bit, I've worked with elderly care both with Home care and at the retirement home.
In the end, I'm not so sure I feel as comfortable working around women as working around other guys. I always felt very left out, since you don't have as much in common to talk about and you stand out a bit from the group.
[QUOTE=Simski;36053373]I've tried this a bit, I've worked with elderly care both with Home care and at the retirement home.
In the end, I'm not so sure I feel as comfortable working around women as working around other guys. I always felt very left out, since you don't have as much in common to talk about and you stand out a bit from the group.[/QUOTE]
hopefully that'll fade as women and men do more and more "manly" or "womanly" jobs, if all goes well we'll eventually stop seeing people's personalities formed by their gender role and you'll have just as much to talk about with a woman as you would with a man
[QUOTE=Simski;36053373]I've tried this a bit, I've worked with elderly care both with Home care and at the retirement home.
In the end, I'm not so sure I feel as comfortable working around women as working around other guys. I always felt very left out, since you don't have as much in common to talk about and you stand out a bit from the group.[/QUOTE]
What're you talking about, Simski?
You have nails on your hands, don't you?
Just hop in there and talk about them! That's what women talk about, right? :v:
[QUOTE=AceOfDivine;36052114]Some of us enjoy that. So hush[/QUOTE]
:)
[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;36053528]What're you talking about, Simski?
You have nails on your hands, don't you?
Just hop in there and talk about them! That's what women talk about, right? :v:[/QUOTE]
Umm
"oh hey girl whats your favorite nail polish mines purple! LOL!"
"Holy crap! Creepy!"
Those poor oppressed men, finally able to get jobs that are dominated by women because they realize they don't have to be "manly", but otherwise can get any job they want without someone stopping them.
Unlike women, who are barred from jobs because of sexism and have a far more significant struggle.
More and more girls are becoming lorry drivers, in my school class there's 5 of them. Not that many, but it's more than last year.
[QUOTE=J!NX;36053548]:)
Umm
"oh hey girl whats your favorite nail polish mines purple! LOL!"
"Holy crap! Creepy!"[/QUOTE]
Or they think hes gay.
Girls are crazy about gay guys, its maddening.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;36054053]Those poor oppressed men, finally able to get jobs that are dominated by women because they realize they don't have to be "manly", but otherwise can get any job they want without someone stopping them.
Unlike women, who are barred from jobs because of sexism and have a far more significant struggle.[/QUOTE]
Who on earth are you arguing against? No one mentioned oppressed men
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;36054897]Who on earth are you arguing against? No one mentioned oppressed men[/QUOTE]
Not to mention he's doing a great job of further perpetuating the very social schism that sexism creates by pretending that only women are targeted by sexism, and is in doing so being sexist in ignoring the fact that men, too, can be sexually discriminated against.
I honestly love that argument (and it's closely related "those poor oppressed white people, finally able to X that is dominated by black people because they Y, but otherwise can X without someone stopping them. Unlike black people, who are barred from X because of racism and have a far more significant struggle") because they claim to be against the discrimination, but are, in fact, perpetuating that very discrimination they claim to be against.
I can't help but laugh every time I see someone fall back to that and honesty think it's a sound argument.
News flash to anyone who honestly believes those arguments: discrimination isn't a one-way street; it doesn't only go from majority to minority. It can go both ways. In fact, majority and minority aren't even in the definition of discrimination - discrimination, by definition, is "treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit."
Also, fun note, you see that "[b]in favor of[/b] or against,"? Yeah, discrimination isn't inherently negative, either. It can be a positive thing as well, such as giving person X a job over person Y, not because person Y is white, but because person X is black. Special treatment of a certain people is discrimination, too.
Male nursing has been on a steeping rise recently.
I used to get stick from my friends and such because i did my nurse training, now look who's got the better paid job and a job where he's happy.
So what now, men are going to be parading around for the right to vote?
Nonsense I say!
I'm currently working in a pre-school which is a pretty female dominated field. I only knew 3 male teachers who weren't heads from the age of about 3 to 10.
Thank God my dentist is traditional and only employs the hottest female blond recent dental school grads around. I'm almost happy I'm going to the dentist thursday.
Why yes, you can give me an oral cleaning.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
