Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble
The very idea that we need to "do something" for, or to, or about girls actually perpetuates the lowered expectations.
What I think needs to happen--and I know I'm basically alone in this--is we need to encourage boys into teaching, nursing, etc. It's not "boys' jobs are automatically better, let's raise the girls to their standard," rather it's "all jobs are legitimate, make the boys (and everyone else) stop shitting on the jobs that have been traditionally done by women." At the same time, greater participation in these fields from men would drain off some of the questionable-to-downright-bad STEM guys, leaving more openings and demand for the talented STEM gals.
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I very much agree with this. I do think there needs to be a concerted effort to make STEM areas more conducive to female participation - but that's not about making science and tech more interesting for girls, it's about making the fields in which those things are studied less unwelcoming of them, by degendering them. Not by reinforcing gender stereotypes.
But the reason I want that to happen, isn't because science and tech jobs are better, or that male dominated industries are more important - even though they are remunerated and treated as such. It's because girls are just as able to follow those paths and just as likely to want to if the barriers are removed. It's great for the girls because they get to fulfil their potential without being streamed off in childhood to something that is simply considered more appropriate to their gender. And it is good for society, because it means we have a much wider pool of potential talent to draw from.
Absolutely the same thing applies to nursing, teaching and caring. It is fucking surreal that we as a society consider those jobs as somehow a lesser career choice, and that they pay so much less. Purely because they are fields that involve attributes we consider primarily female. When a job type changes from being considered mainly male, to mainly female, it drops down in respect and reward. Secretarial work is a classic example of that, as is teaching.
How many potentially awesome nurses and carers do we lose because boys get discouraged, directly or indirectly, from entering those fields. The further down the age scale you move, the more female dominated teaching becomes (though not, it has to be said when it comes to head teachers/principles and management). It is rewarded more as you move up into deeper subject teaching with older children - because teachers of young children get kind of dismissed a little as child carers - which is bizarre really. First - child caring is fucking hard work and requires a lot of mental agility, and second, teaching small children who aren't yours is not the same as babysitting - it requires years of training and learning about how to teach and manage a classroom, the psychology of learning and a host of other highly specialist skills and knowledge.
So we get a double-bind. Femaleness is once again the factor that devalues - and it sets the scene for further devaluation and segregation - whilst at the same time robbing boys of some of their opportunities to reach their potential and find success and fulfilment.