Unemployment pushes more men to take on female-dominated jobs
In the last few decades, many high-paying jobs that are mostly done by men – like manufacturing – have contracted or disappeared. At the same time, many jobs in fields dominated by women – like education and health care – have significantly increased.
In fact, female-dominated jobs have some of the highest projected job and wage growth in the economy.
We are sociologists interested in the following question: If jobs in female-dominated sectors represent the future, what will it take for men to take them?
Who’s working where?
Women have made significant progress entering male-dominated jobs – like finance, law and medicine – over the past several decades.
However, men have made far less progress entering female-dominated jobs like those of teachers, nurses or human resource representativ...