Placing Convention in Gender-Employment on its Head

"One of the biggest take-aways is that economic conditions really matter for whether men go into female-dominated jobs."
"[Unemployment] may act as a trigger event that encourages them to consider new alternatives."
"Unemployment is not a viable strategy for getting more men to go into female-dominated jobs [however]."
Jill Yavorsky, sociologist, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

"You have to be somehow taken out of your routine."
"If you're just sitting there talking to a guidance counsellor, it may not jump out at you that you want to work in health care, but we're in an economy right now where [not everyone] has a lot of options."
Christine Williams, sociologist, University of Texas, Austin

"I was going from job to job [where] there was an income ceiling I couldn't break through."
"My closest friends, they poked at me a little bit, but they're not laughing anymore."
Mike Ward, vice-president, American Association for Men in Nursing, Fort Worth

A new study finds that one particular factor — the loss of a job — could explain why some men are willing to take jobs in female-dominated industries, such as nursing. (iStock)

A new study published in the January edition of the journal Social Science Research, went through eight years of data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in its Survey of Income and Program Participation, finding that among men working in male-dominated industries or mixed-gender workforces when they became unemployed, 19 percent elected to divert into female-dominated occupations, whereas in comparison, 12 percent of men decided on a similar move who hadn't lost a job.

We've been accustomed over the past decades to seeing women entering into male-dominated industries such as medicine, law and finance; less noticeable has been men, usually loathe to enter occupations dominated by women in fields such as nursing or education, who have done so. The study reached the conclusion that one of the factors involved was the 'shock' of losing a job, to explain why it is that some men become willing to take employment in traditionally female-dominated occupations.

According to the most recent jobs report, women outnumbered men among payroll jobs for the second time, reflecting higher job growth in fields such as health care and education, considered traditional female occupations. Men continue to outnumber women in the total workforce when adding in workers who are self-employed or farm workers. But traditional female-dominated occupations are on a fast-growth track compared to those fields dominated by men; manufacturing and goods production.

Another impact of men occupying female=dominated jobs beyond becoming employed, was that on average those men realized a four-percent wage increase along with a boost in the "prestige" rating in their occupation compared with the job they held before it was lost to them. An explanation for this may be found in the fact that men are willing to take positions stigmatized as "pink-collar" only if they are more highly compensated through status or pay.

Occupations such as  home health aides remain at the bottom of the wage scale, with nurse practitioners at the high end, both areas where the growth in female-dominated occupations has risen. Jobs that conventionally offered a path for women to the middle class are evaporating, with over 2.1 million administrative support and office support jobs lost since 2000.

As one example, Mike Ward recently completed a master's program to become a nurse practitioner, following eleven years spent in emergency room and intensive care as a unit nurse. He had made the decision to go into nursing when he was laid off as an oilfield roughneck back in 2000. He then worked for a drilling company in the Gulf of Mexico, following which he spent several years fuelling airplanes, working in a paper mill and performing jobs for an electrical company.

He had a long-time interest in medicine, but was initially stalled by stigma attached to men in nursing. Eventually, he qualified for financial aid and entered school in 2003. At this point in his working career, he earns a six-figure salary, serving as vice-president of the American Association for Men in Nursing. He broke his own fragile pink-tinted glass ceiling to fulfill his medical ambitions.

"Think about how big the unemployment shock was in 2008, and we didn't see a big realignment."
"I think one of the challenges for men is we need to see more cultural images that reshape our notions of traditionally female jobs as actually being jobs that are more gender-neutral and more consistent with masculinity."
Betsey Stevenson, professor, public policy and economics, University of Michigan

Only by revealing and eradicating the disincentives to work in female-dominated occupations — both economic and social — will it be possible to achieve gender equality in the labor market.

Image: REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay