How Women Are Belittle By a Male-Dominated Industry and Occupations
Most male-dominated occupations and industries are predominantly vulnerable to strengthening masculine stereotypes, making it more challenging for women to succeed. Even though women remain a larger part of the workforce in the United States, some male-dominated careers and industries still exist. Still, the difference is reducing, though slowly.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has recently reported that women of the early 1980s era were more expected to earn a bachelor’s degree before 31 years compared to their male counterparts. Besides, according to Campuzano (438), this aspect seems to have slightly changed. The statistics from the Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the United States Census Bureau and the BLS show that women are around 19 percent of the U.S. software developers are women. In contrast, only about 18 percent among the clergy, and even some religious sects never ordain women contributing to the existing huge gender disparity (Campuzano 438). The data also demonstrate that females in aerospace engineers’ occupations are less than 8 percent.
The low percentage of women has been necessitated by several factors, including negative societal beliefs and expectations about women’s leadership abilities. There are also persistent stereotypes of women being belittled as a merely “caring mother” or even office and housekeepers (Hulls et al. 2). Women also in male-dominated industries lack career development and mentoring and opportunities and sometimes suffer sexual harassment.
The recommended solutions for women to overcome being belittled in the male-dominated industries include; letting their voices be heard by first recognizing the value of their opinions and then believe what share is constructive. Women should also learn how they can handle conflicts by instead of being victims or engaging in conflicts or even avoiding it; they should learn how to communicate the way forward by first acknowledging any conflict. There is also a need for women to take up leadership roles. Whatever their position, women should search for leadership roles they can excel in, either in chairing up a major initiative to solve workplace or individual problems as they resolve conflicts.
Works Cited
Campuzano, Mariela V. “Force, and Inertia: A Systematic Review of Women’s Leadership in Male-Dominated Organizational Cultures in the United States.” Human Resource Development Review 18.4 (2019): 437-469.
Hulls, Paige M., et al. “A systematic review protocol examining workplace interventions that aim to improve employee health and wellbeing in male-dominated industries.” Systematic reviews 9.1 (2020): 1-7.