If you searched for this, you would find multiple programs trying to do just that. The difference is that it doesn't make the news because there isn't a reactionary movement which sees that as an existential threat.
If anything, this would help my wife who is a doctor but often finds older patients assuming she is a nurse simply because she is woman. There are male nurses, and hopefully more men will join the field, as the same gender stereotype that assumes that women cannot be doctors is the one that assumes all nurses are women.
Nobody thinks that women entering tech is an existential threat. If you think that’s the issue, it’s no wonder you can’t figure out why this is so counterproductive. In fact, you probably haven’t even realized the damage you are doing to your own cause.
> Nobody thinks that women entering tech is an existential threat.
let me tell you dude, some people see it as one (and have told me as much). Tech is their thing and me coming in as a woman who sees this as a good career choice and not something where I can essentially get paid for my hobby aggravates them. I'm ruining their "safe, nerdy space", essentially.
There isn't a reactionary movement that sees "women in tech" as an existential threat. The "reactionaries" you're alluding to are properly known as "liberals" or "egalitarians".
Gah, I realize that I think I was unclear. I didn’t mean “liberals and egalitarians are reactionaries”, but rather the people who are critical of tech diversity quotas are often motivated by liberal and egalitarian beliefs. Hopefully that’s clearer if not more agreeable.
If you want the real examples, you look at daycare workers and elementary teachers. Insurance is an issue with daycares that hire male workers. Plus, you have quite a few parents that are fine with their boys being changed by women, but not their daughters being changed by men. Thus the problems, plus the pervasive stories of child molestation and societal stigma against males in this area.
The shame of it is that witnessing positive interaction between the sexes at that age would do quite a bit for the children later in life. Particularly in communities where the percentage of in-household fathers is low.
It's definitely a problem, and it's not good that male role models are often lacking in earlier childhood education (especially when male role models may be lacking at home at well), but one key difference is that these aren't generally well-compensated positions.
Definitely, compensation is a big factor. In fact, compensation for women in other roles is also a factor. The more that women can be paid in technical / other roles, the more flexibility their partners would have to take on jobs that don't pay as much but that might be more personally satisfying (like this). People who object to women getting paid more often seem to treat it as a zero-sum game, rather than as a rising tide lifting all boats.
It's relevant in the sense that I don't particularly care that it'd be harder for me to get these jobs, as the pay cut vs my current job of software engineer would be so significant that I would never seriously consider it. Conversely, I would care a lot if there's some job that would earn me more money that my gender hinders me in attaining (as is sometimes the case for women in tech).
To the extent that society is worse off for the imbalance, part of the solution is better compensating these jobs in the first place. We're currently taking advantage of people who have a passion for doing the work by underpaying them, which disproportionately affects women.
> Conversely, I would care a lot if there's some job that would earn me more money that my gender hinders me in attaining (as is sometimes the case for women in tech).
It might be useful to point out since this is an internantional forum:
This is very different from northern Europe. Here if I help recruit a male engineer I get a fat check.
If I help recruit a female engineer I get an equally fat check + smiles and possibly mentions, because leaders have this as a KPI.
So for me this all seems really weird but I guess it looks a bit different in the US.
I'll also admit that I once helped a foreign woman get a job in my office (she was cleaning, but had a degree in IT and had the skills), but this is > 10 years ago and she wasn't fluent in the local language.
It's relevant in the sense that I don't particularly care that it'd be harder for me to get these jobs, as the pay cut vs my current job of software engineer would be so significant that I would never seriously consider it.
I'm glad your chosen profession is well paid and you have the ability to do it. Some folks have alternate dreams and maybe not the same abilities you have. Perhaps they would make an amazing educator and find the salary acceptable.
Conversely, I would care a lot if there's some job that would earn me more money that my gender hinders me in attaining (as is sometimes the case for women in tech).
People tend to react badly when their dreams, even if not as profitable as you would like, are hindered or totally roadblocked.
To the extent that society is worse off for the imbalance, part of the solution is better compensating these jobs in the first place.
That doesn't change the fact that these jobs are actually open to a segment of the population. Better salaries just makes the jobs more attractive to people who aren't roadblocked.
We're currently taking advantage of people who have a passion for doing the work by underpaying them, which disproportionately affects women.
Well, the men are being excluded so it cannot take advantage them. If the imbalance is unacceptable then its unacceptable.
I think you're responding to a stronger version of what I actually said. I said that compensation is a factor, whereas you're responding as if I said it were the only factor (which I would disagree with too).
Sure, go for it. But I know a male nurse and he's never experienced anything remotely like what a lot of women I know in tech experience so it's not the equal thought you might think it is.
I think that's true for male nurses, but at least in my country male Kindergarten teachers often have a hard time.
Parents not wanting their daughter to be touched (or even helped to the toilet) by the male teacher, female colleagues making "jokes" about pedophile leanings, and so on.
The divide in typically female and typically male professions is not a one-way street.
I know a male nurse, and he's constantly getting jibes from patients about being gay. He's not, but that's kind of beside the point; the point is that there do exist stereotypes about male nurses that need to be addressed.
A heavy dose of affirmative action. At least in the law field. From what I've been told anecdotally is that women and minorities are not held to the same standard as white men. They are accepted even if they are less productive and women are allowed to work fewer hours to deal with child rearing.
Best is to do what symphony orchestras have done. All auditions are done behind a screen so you can be judged purely on your talent. You are not allowed to wear shoes to the audition because we don't want to judge your foot steps into the room. Just your instrument (which might be borrowed!) - and possibly your choice in music (or possibly not).
Of course music is easy to do blind this way. It isn't clear how you judge technical people in a fair way in a 5 minute audition. (see plenty of previous discussions here on white board coding)
Music also has high numbers of minorities going into it in the first place. The number of females who start a technical degree program is very low, and this is reflected in the graduations numbers (I understand females are more likely to drop out of the program as well, which needs to be addressed)
Failing that, what lawyers have done is a possible answer.
"Only 13 percent of nurses in the United States are men, but that share has grown steadily since 1960, when the number was 2 percent, according to a working paper published in October by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth."
And for good reason. Nursing is physically demanding, especially seeing as how the majority of American adults are now obese. It's common for nurses to physically injure themselves trying to move a patient that they're simply not strong enough to handle.
So yes, nursing needs more men, as the job shares a lot of the same physical requirements of other strength-requiring occupations such as construction.