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Melissa Hutsell is an award-winning freelance journalist with a deep rooted passion for both community and international journalism. She was born and raised in Northern California, and has lived, studied, worked, and traveled in more 20 different countries. Melissa holds a Master's degree in Global Journalism from City University London, as well as degrees in Journalism and Globalization from Humboldt State University. Though she covers various topics as both a writer and editor, she specializes in business and cannabis journalism.
Podcast: How Gender Affects Employment Opportunities
The job market in America is complex. While some report unemployment rates are at their lowest in recent history, others describe a land barren of employment opportunity.
Some sectors of the economy are booming, and others are going bust. Take the coal industry for example; most agree it’s not coming back. But the healthcare field is promising. So why aren’t more workers moving from bust fields into fields that are in high demand – like nursing?
On this episode of Hidden Brain, host Shankar Vedantam explores this paradox. Throughout the podcast, he discovers a hidden factor that affects employment opportunities: gender.
Northwestern University’s Alica Eagly sheds light on this. “If women are attracted to the occupation, then it becomes something that women do, and men would perhaps hesitate to enter.”
The result is that men seem to actively avoid female-dominated positions. In fact, “There is very little movement of men – period,” says Eagly, a social psychologist.
When Robert Vaughn was 23, he faced a dilemma: “Conform to norms of masculinity or pursue a promising career in a field long dominated by women,” explains Vedantam. In the small West Virginia town Vaughn grew up in, there were expectations for men. One of those was joining the military – so that’s what he did.
When he got out, his father-in-law suggested he become a nurse. His first thought, “that’s a women’s job.” He went into security at a hospital instead. There, Vaughn realized being a nurse was physically demanding, similar to his previous experience in the military.
Vaughn became a nurse. He now works in the cardiovascular unit. In his 10 years as a nurse, he said he’s come to admire the skills he once considered feminine. “[…] Men are still just as compassionate and empathetic. We just express that, sometimes, in a different way,” he says, for example in being a father.
Vaughn’s story shows half the population excludes itself from careers in booming fields. It also shows these narratives are worth re-shaping.
