III. WHAT ARE WOMEN NOT DOING?

Are you surprised to hear that there are hardly any women helping to figure out ways to run pipelines of safe drinking water to people in developing countries? (Did you know that water engineers save more lives than doctors?)
There are hardly any women planning the next big ‘step for mankind’ in space exploration, or even cyberspace exploration!
The secrets of the universe lie in the puzzles of physics and math. The way things are going, odds are it won’t be a woman who unlocks them.
When a stylish new home is completed, a woman might have selected drapes and room colors, but chances are that a woman did not have the fun of designing the dramatic new building, nor did a woman likely do the beautiful marquetry woodwork, or install the tile.
The pest-control technician who comes by to spray once a month will probably not be a woman. Whoever it is will earn a lot more than the housekeeper, probably with less effort.
Non-traditional occupations (NTOs), jobs usually done by men, include those in the building trades, technical and transportation fields, computer sciences, math and science teaching, computer science and the many different fields of engineering. Additionally, and importantly, most high-level business executives are men. Women might be alarmed to learn that, at the start of 2006, only seven of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies had a female CEO. That’s down from nine the previous year. That’s less than 2%! Women who run whole countries are probably less rare!
Here is the U.S. Department of Labor’s long list of most of the jobs that very few women do: those in which women comprise 25% or less of the workforce. Some of these jobs include a scant few or, in terms of statistical significance, no women.

JOBS WITH FEW WOMEN

AEROSPACE ENGINEER

AIRCRAFT PILOT

AIRCRAFT MECHANIC

ARCHITECT

AUTOMOBILE SERVICE TECHNICIAN AND MECHANIC

BAGGAGE PORTER/BELLHOP

BARBER

BROADCAST AND SOUND ENGINEERING TECHNICIAN

BRICKMASON/BLOCKMASON/STONEMASON

BUS/TRUCK MECHANIC

COIN-OPERATED/VENDING/AMUSEMENT MACHINE SERVICER/REPAIRER

CHEF/HEAD COOK

CHEMICAL ENGINEER

CIVIL ENGINEER

COIN-OPERATED/VENDING/AMUSEMENT MACHINE SERVICER/REPAIRER

COMPUTER HARDWARE ENGINEER

COURIER

COST ESTIMATOR

CLEANER/DETAILER OF VEHICLES AND EQUIP.

CLERGY

COMPUTER/AUTOMATED TELLER/OFFICE MACHINE REPAIR

CHEMICAL PROCESSING MACHINE OPERATOR

CRUSHING/GRINDING/POLISHING/MIXING/BLENDING WORKER

CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING INSPECTOR

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER

CUTTING WORKER

CABINET MAKER/BENCH CARPENTER

CRANE AND TOWER OPERATOR

CONSTRUCTION LABORER

CARPET/FLOOR/TILE INSTALLER

CEMENT MASON

CARPENTER

DISHWASHER

DETECTIVE, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR

DRAFTER

DRILLING/BORING MACHINE OPERATOR

DRIVER/SALES WORKERS, TRUCK DRIVER

DRYWALL INSTALLER/CEILING TILE INSTALLER/TAPER

DREDGE/EXCAVATING/LOADING MACHINE OPERATOR

ENGINEERING TECHNICIAN

ELECTRICIAN

ELECTRICAL POWER LINE INSTALLERS/REPAIRER

ENGINEER, ALL OTHER

ENGINEERING MANAGERS

FARMER, RANCHER

FIRST LINE SUPERVISOR OF POLICE AND DETECTIVES

FARM, RANCH, AGRICULTURAL MANAGER

FIRST LINE SUPERVISOR OF MECHANICS/INSTALLERS/REPAIRERS
TRANSPORTATION/MATERIAL MOVING

REFUSE COLLECTOR

FIREFIGHTER

FIRST LINE SUPERVISOR OF FARMING/FISHING/FORESTRY WORKERS

CONSTRUCTION TRADES/EXTRACTION WORKERS

GRINDING/LAPPING/BUFFING MACHINE OPERATOR

GROUNDS MAINTENANCE WORKER

GLAZIER

HEAVY VEHICLE AND MOBILE EQUIP SERVICE

HEATING/AIR CONDITIONING/REFRIGERATION MECHANIC, INSTALLER

HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE WORKER

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEER

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION MANAGER

INDUSTRIAL TRUCK AND TRACTOR OPERATOR

INDUSTRIAL REFACTORY MACHINERY MECHANIC

JOB PRINTER

LOGGING WORKER

MECHANICAL ENGINEER

METAL WORKER/PLASTIC WORKER

MISC CONSTRUCTION

MILLWRIGHT

METER READER

MOTOR VEHICLE/ ALL OTHER

MATERIAL MOVING WORKER

MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR WORKER, GENERAL

OPERATING ENGINEERS AND OTHER

PAINTER

PARTS SALESPERSON

PRECISION INSTRUMENT AND EQUIPMENT REPAIR

POLICE AND SHERIFF’S PATROL OFFICER

PARKING LOT ATTENDANT

PLASTERER/STUCCO MASON

PLUMBER, PIPELAYER, PIPEFITTER, STEAMFITTER

REFUSE/RECYCLABLE COLLECTOR

RAILROAD CONDUCTOR/YARDMASTER

SUPERVISOR OF PROTECTIVE SERVICE WORKERS

SECURITY GUARD/GAMING SURVEILLANCE OFFICER

SURVEYING AND MAPPING TECHNICIAN

SYSTEM OPERATOR

SHEET METAL WORKER

SECURITY AND FIRE ALARM SYSTEMS INSTALLER

SERVICE STATION ATTENDANT

SAWING MACHINE SETTER/OPERATOR

SALES ENGINEER

STRUCTURAL IRON/STEELWORKER

SMALL ENGINE MECHANIC

TELECOMMUNICATIONS LINE INSTALLER/REPAIRER

TOOL AND DIE MAKER

TAXI DRIVER/CHAUFFEUR

UPHOLSTERER

WELDER/SOLDERER

WATER/WASTE TREATMENT PLANT SYSTEM OPERATOR

As anyone can see, the list of fields women now don’t enter is very long. Furthermore, this list does not account for the fact that, even in those businesses that do interest and include women, females are not well-represented in the highest-level jobs. This significant fact will be discussed later.
When we consider both the huge numbers of women going into just a few different careers, and the very few women in dozens of male-dominated jobs, we can see that women really have tunnel vision when it comes to choosing jobs. We will later explore the possible reasons for this narrow perspective.
The exact profile of women’s participation in jobs varies from region to region. Recently Washington State, for example, looked at the census statistics for their state. Their statistics differed somewhat from the national percentages. For example, 6.9 percent of firefighters in that state were women, almost twice the national number. They had more than the average number of female clergy, with 17.1%, and way fewer female dentists with 16.5%. Among job categories with many workers, there were only 425 women among 20,300 automotive mechanics in the state. That’s just 2.1 percent. There were 37,144 carpenters in Washington, but only 954 women, for 2.6 percent.
Regional differences might demonstrate that the surrounding culture can influence a woman’s job choices. Each woman’s choice to be a firefighter can inspire another woman, and it could take just a few such inspiring women in a community to change a statistic significantly.
Women might be more motivated to start the trend toward “men’s jobs” themselves if they consider the following: women doing non-traditional jobs are making 20-30% more than women in equivalent traditional jobs.
Are college-educated women a lot more interested in non-traditional jobs than other women? It doesn’t look like it.
As of 1999, even at the most progressive universities in the U.S., there was only, on the average, one female for every five male engineering students. It was worse in the Computer Science field, with a whopping 83% of the bachelor degrees in computer science and computer engineering going to men.
Cisco Systems paid IDC, an analyst firm, to look at the shortage of skilled networking engineers, who install, maintain, and operate computer systems. According to Marianne Kolding, “While the whole information technology industry suffers from low female participation rates, it was surprising to see just how few women see networking as a suitable profession.” It seems women see this field as too ‘nerdy’. Only about 7% of the workforce in this field is female. Mike Couzens of Cisco reports that females surveyed still perceive networking as “too technical for women”.
Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business contains almost a third of all its undergraduate students. The gender gap in this major is second only to that in the engineering school, with 64% of its 1,010 upperclassmen being men. Of the 108 Management majors, 78% were men in 2004. Of the Finance majors, 76% were male---this at Notre Dame, a school with approximately equal numbers of men and women, the best and the brightest. Some will probably wind up CEOs of those Fortune 500 companies.
There are many jobs that can currently be accurately described as Men’s Work, because men, by and large, do them. On average, the jobs pay 33% more, to start. This work is blue-collar, white collar, indoor and outdoor. These jobs are sometimes physically challenging and often mentally demanding.Men’s Work? Why?