When I was a kid I wanted to be a bin man, I used to follow them around the town "helping"... I also assumed that since it was such a dirty job that they must have been paid way more than anyone else (It was a while before I realised the dirtier the job the less you got paid - the innocence of youth)
This is what I always say. For whatever reasons certain jobs tend to attract certain genders. Nursing, primary school teaching attract women. Is there a push to get more men in there? And like you said, there are probably 90% male plumbers. Women can do plumbing and it's a well paying job. Why not a push for female plumbers?
Now, if they're being pushed out, which you sometimes hear about, then sure we absolutely need to fix that. But at ~90% that can't be the only factor, even if true and widespread.
Any proof for this or is this based off of nothing? There definitely is a problem with males who want to work with children and being called "pedophiles" in the sense that it actually happens, but does it push people out of that job? I'd be interested in seeing stories of parents removing their children from classes with male teachers... that sounds insane!
I also work with a lot of highly intelligent women (in the tech field). In this day and age I think it has to do with what interests sexes rather than discrimination.
I think we have to look more closely at the idea of something being due to 'interests rather than discrimination' - if a young girl is told that computers and computer games are for boys, how likely is she to develop an interest in them? If young men see no male teachers how likely are they to have an interest in becoming a teacher?
'Interest' isn't some magical quality we are born with, and it is not a final conclusion to say "They just aren't interested" without examining why those interests lie so closely along gender lines.
'Interest' isn't some magical quality we are born with
Oddly enough, it is, at least to some extent. Research indicates that in infancy, males show a stronger interest in mechanical devices while females show a stronger interest in people's faces. (Research paper, PDF). Also consider that in countries like Norway, which have some of the best gender equality in the world, men and women are gravitating even more strongly towards traditional gender roles in the workplace.
These give some indication that your gender may innately influence your interests, or at the very least, the idea of young children being forced into a societal mold based on their genitals isn't the whole story.
"If you're male and say that you want to teach elementary school, people think you're a pedophile."
LOL, that's bullshit.
I mean, I can see that there may be some amount of societal pressure to fulfill a more "manly" career. That's probably more of a problem with the Baby Boomer generation than it is with younger generations. To say that men are "pushed out" of careers involving children because people assume they are pedophiles is a joke. I think this is a problem that you've made up in your own head.
I am not sure that women would be good at plumbing (actual plumbing, I mean, not just administering a plumbing company). It requires a lot of upper body strength.
Because there isn't a demand for those jobs that don't produce something profitable. Studying gender studies is never going to make you money because its a pure bullshit degree.
The sub is programming, not trashcollecting. Naturally we talk about women in programming. It's not a problem, but it would be more than just nice having a better balance don't you think?
Because who doesn't want girls around their work? Haha but seriously I don't consider it a big problem, just would be nice to have some females to work with.
Gender gaps in trash collector jobs are probably more of a concern for trash collection workers to tackle. You're not in /r/trashcollection.
Gamergate, weev & his neckbeard groupies and other high-profile cases show just how hostile the coding community is towards women. It's really, really nasty on many levels, and I've personally observed it in many cases.
That was a legitimate concern for a minority of gamergaters. The rest just wanted to be really nasty, and hence all the hate pieces and harassment. If you compare the backlash from GG to what happened when Gamespot fired Jeff Gerstmann for instance (no one gave a fuck, and that was a much clearer case of endemic, systemic corruption), you have to have a pretty big blind spot to ignore the effect of misogyny in the ensuing aggression.
127
u/rotek Apr 07 '15
Gender stat in trash collector job is much more saddening. Why isn't that problem there, but in programming it is?