A Switch in the Workforce

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The Economic principle I’m exploring is “Institutions are rules of the game that influence choices”. My research question to help me explore the principle is - How do gender norms affect job opportunities/choices? The article published in Business News Daily titles “Gender Roles? Traditional ‘Gendered’ Jobs are Being Flipped” demonstrates this economic principle because it argues that gender norms have been apart of society and influence career paths. It also argues that more recently these norms have been ignored.

 First, most of the time a gender norm is woven in to the preconceived notion of a job title. The article states that “for decades, some jobs were traditionally held by women” like teachers, nurses, or bartenders, “while others were filled with mostly men” like managers, CEOs, or chemists. Many people believed, and still believe today, that men were the only ones able to hold a high position in the workforce, while women stayed at home.

In the article, the author, Chad Brooks, goes on to say that the gender line has become blurred and roles have become neutral. Brooks claims that “23% of jobs traditionally held by men are now held by female workers” and “27% of female dominated occupations… are held by male workers”. These statistics show that adults going into the workforce are ignoring the gender association of each job. Changing role can take time, but it is heading in the right direction. Here are the careers that used to be male dominated but show women participating at higher percentages:

1. Lawyers: 48 percent
2. Veterinarians: 48 percent
3. Commercial and industrial designers: 48 percent
4. Marketing managers: 47 percent
5. Optometrists: 43 percent
6. Management analysts: 43 percent
7. Sales managers: 43 percent
8. Producers and directors: 42 percent
9. Chemists: 42 percent
10. Coaches and scouts: 41 percent
11. Private detectives and investigators: 41 percent
12. Emergency medical technicians and paramedics: 40 percent
13. Financial analysts: 40 percent
14. Team assemblers: 40 percent
15. Computer systems analysts: 34 percent
16. General and operations managers: 33 percent
17. Firefighters: 32 percent
18. Surgeons: 31 percent
19. Web developers: 31 percent
20. Dentists, general: 31 percent
21. Chief executives: 28 percent

My next research question is: Is it a personal choice or are companies discriminating genders when hiring?