This week's talking point has a look at this new trend in the labour market. Get together with the members of your conversation group and discuss the questions below, which have been taken from The New York Times Learning Network.
Would you be interested in a non-traditional -pink-collar- job of some kind?
What jobs that have traditionally been held by members of the opposite gender — or by people of an older or younger age, or from a different background or educational level than yours — might you consider? Why?
Would you consider taking a non-traditional job of some kind in the future?
What jobs do your friends and family members do?
Do any of your friends or family members hold non-traditional jobs?
If so, how have others reacted to that choice?
Are there any jobs that you think should be limited by gender?
If so, what, and why?
In preparation for you talking session, you can also read the NYT article More Men Enter Fields Dominated by Women, by Shaila Dewan and Robert Gebeloff. You can also watch the accompanying video to this article, where some men explain the reasons underlying their choice of a pink-collar job. You can find the transcript for the video below.
I kind of cringe at the term male nurse because, you know, I’m a nurse, you know, it just so happens I am a guy.
Kevin Kaiser is one of a small but growing number of men who are registered nurses. Nursing, like teaching and waitressing are among the occupations that have long been dominated by women. Economists call such occupations ‘pink collar jobs’. But a New York Times analysis shows that men are increasingly donning the pink collar. Men say these jobs are stable, challenging, and often a better fit.
I enjoy the complexity of the patients. I like the flexibility. I basically create my own schedule.
We are seeing now men gravitate into areas that they weren’t so anxious to get into before: neonatal, a lot of male nurses are now in pediatrics, and that’s one, I’ve been a nurse for 40 years, that’s definitely a change.
Now we see a lot of men in pink collar jobs, and there are a couple of reasons for that. One is that those are the jobs that are growing.
Ghilarducci is a behavioural economist who researches workforce issues.
Also the jobs for women, that women dominate are in such high demand that the pay is increasing.
My pay is premium, my benefits are premium, I get subsidized housing across the street. The increase in pay and benefits has been tremendous over the years, and that’s one of the reasons I don’t understand why more men are doing this.
30 years ago Ryan was one of the few men who chose to face the social stigma associated with women’s work.
When I first started in nursing, the culture of nursing was much, much different. If a physician walked into the nurse station, nurses were expected to stand up and let that physician sit down. Now for a guy doing that, you know, not used to sort of demerge to someone else, that was difficult for me to do.
I think young men aren’t settled with the kind of sexism than older men are. They are working along, women are their equals, and that working with a woman and being supervised by a woman would be demeaning.
I ‘ve seen different kinds of guys now. Now you see guys that you’d meet in a neighbourhood bar, the guy who was doing an engineer’s job or something, and I do see people with degrees in other fields.
One of the reasons why it is so important from an economist’s point of view that occupations are integrated is because it makes the economy more efficient. We economists have been talking about that from day one, that if you have artificial barriers to a job, they don’t have people getting the best matches.
I mean, you can go and bang a hammer on the side of a building if you want to or you can sit down and shuffle paper and talk to people on telephone trying to sell them insurance, but you are not going to feel good at the end of the day like you do with this job.
