I have not thought about gender and work in a while. In the Merc news today there is a story about how jobs are divided by gender. This is pretty interesting. I wonder if this has anything to do with women settling for less in salary negations. I wonder if this might pull a whole profession down.
I also wonder if it is something else all together different. This stat really stood out to me.
About 42 percent of the nation's working women are employed in just 20 occupations out of 450 on the government's standardized roster of jobs, including preschool and kindergarten teachers (98 percent female), secretaries and administrative assistants (97 percent female), receptionists (93 percent female), registered nurses (91 percent female) and maids and house cleaners (88 percent female).
It makes me wonder about the labor supply and demand in these fields. I wonder if this is more than just labor the difference. Is there a difference in the competitive nature of these fields? Is like fields for a men more dangerous or dirty. I think looking at the top five might give us some insights.
1. Logging workers 2. Automotive body and related repairers 3. Cement masons, concrete finishers, terrazzo workers 4. Bus and truck mechanics, diesel engine specialists 5. Electrical power-line installers and repairers
To be honest I do not hear feminists yelling for more women to be in these fields. I think you need to see longer lists to see what is happening. I am not sure that these things are going to change any time soon. I am not saying that sexism is not at work here, but there are forces more powerful than just regular men being sexists here. Unless those forces are understood nothing with change.
Ealasid is running the Feminist Forum over at her blog. This is her answering questions about how she feels about feminism. It is a pretty interesting to read. We had lunch this week and talked about men, women, and gender. She really wants me to write a post about it. It will take me a while because it is a topic I do not go into too often. I hold my opinion close on these subjects because I have learned that people do not change their mind easily when it comes to these topics. At best I am see as a jerk when writing about them. I will share some of my thoughts, but it will take me a while to get around to them. I have something to write on this topic, but i am not sure who wants to read it.
Last Wednesday the Metro had a cover headline of Mommies Vs. Feminists. I was excited when I saw the headline. I was very disappointed when I read the story and found out it was a story about how Mommybloggers and Sexbloggers don't get along and how it played out at blogher. The story makes it sound like two groups of narcissists don't like each other. I am so surprised.
I was disappointed because there is a real issue about a school of feminists saying that this generation of stay at home Moms betraying the cause of working women. Linda R. Hirshman and her book Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World are an example of that school of thought. I think stories about feminists who are stay at home moms and feminists that think stay at home moms are bad for working women would be an interesting story. Those are the conflicts that I want to read about.
I was at a party a few weeks ago with a woman who railed against stay at home moms. She told us if this kept on happening women would lose their seat in Ivy League schools. I cannot agree with her, but she was confident about that. I told her that many of my friends left the work force because for many people corporate jobs are soul crushing. Many of them found out that they are not going to get to get to the level of an vice-president. She is a vice-president, but she did not agree with me about working being soul crushing for people. It was a crazy conversation.
I have 30-something friends who have decided to be stay at home moms. The ones I know enjoy it at least as much at they enjoyed working. I think they are pretty lucky they the can afford to be stay at home moms. Most people around the country cannot do that. If you can afford to stay home with your kids, more power to you.
On some level these arguments feels like the feminism of the elite to me. These arguments will do nothing for the women who cleaning hotel rooms, getting poverty wages at Wal-Mart, or working illegally house keepers. These are the people who could use feminists working for their advancement.
Every year or so I see a story like this updating the state of men and women in college. The jist of the story is that women are doing better in college. It is getting to the point where women are doing much better.
Professors interviewed on several campuses say that in their experience men seem to cluster in a disproportionate share at both ends of the spectrum — students who are the most brilliantly creative, and students who cannot keep up.
'My best male students are every bit as good as my best female students,' said Wendy Moffat, a longtime English professor at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. 'But the range among the guys is wider.'
From the time they are young, boys are far more likely than girls to be suspended or expelled, or have a learning disability or emotional problem diagnosed. As teenagers, they are more likely to drop out of high school, commit suicide or be incarcerated. Such difficulties can have echoes even in college men."
This does not surprise me. My experience in college and high school was like this. Men were at the top of the class, but women made better grades on average.
There is also an economic rationale for men to take education less seriously. In the early years of a career, Laura Perna of the University of Pennsylvania has found, college increases women's earnings far more than men's.
"That's the trap," Dr. Kleinfeld said. "In the early years, young men don't see the wage benefit. They can sell their strength and make money."
I am not sure what to make from this? I think it is good for America that grades to not equal income. School might help you get ready for work, but it is not the same thing. I am not sure what this will say for the future.
I wonder if I am going to hear NPR shows about this topic? What do feminist think about women doing better in college? What does the average liberal think of this? Will I see this story in the next week on the 24 hour news network? How will they treat the story?
I have no rooting interest in this debate, but here is an interesting quote.
"There is a sense that there is a crusade out there against Islam, that Islam is under siege and we have to hold steadfast to our righteous ways more than ever,' said Khaled Abou El Fadl, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a prominent Islamic jurist known for his moderate interpretations.
Dr. Abou El Fadl said the practice began in 18th-century Saudi Arabia, where the austere Wahhabi sect of Islam started walling off or banning women from mosques. (He added that the modern spread of Wahhabism is one facet of the pervasiveness of Saudi financial support for Muslim institutions worldwide.)"
