WOMEN’S CAREERS: SOCEITAL OR BIOLOGICAL?

I’ve been coming across the recent idea that women are not discouraged to work in male dominated industries but ‘biologically’ don’t tend to choose certain jobs. Here’s a news flash. Gender discrimination exists. Societal constructs of gender exist. Sexism exists.

There are stereotypical ideas of “men’s jobs” and “women’s jobs” which hinder a woman’s exposure to male dominated industries. This is very evident in the way we represent certain professions. Let's start. How many famous female scientists can you name? I’m guessing that you’re are running out quickly. What about female sportspeople? I can bet that yiu can’t name as many women as men. Here’s another one, female protagonists of action TV shows. Not a lot, right?

So, you get the idea. Certain things are for “men” and certain things are for “women”. Decades of patriarchy has stated that high skilled and high paying jobs are a man’s work. This explains why fields like social technology, aviation and science are have very high gender imbalances.

Social developing, computer science, politics and engineering have very high gender disparities. They have nothing to do with ‘biological tendencies’ of women. How would you explain lack of women in these industries? Stereotypical ideas of women’s careers are what it is.

Some may argue saying that women choose certain professions because of their natural tendency to “tend and befriend” while men lean towards “fight or flight”. But how much of it is really evolutionary and how much of it is a social construct? For example, a young girl is given dolls to play with, expecting behavior of nurture and care. Whereas boys are given superheroes which portray protection and power. Even in families, there is a clear divide. Women are expected it care and be selfless while such requests would never be aimed at men. Women showing emotion is considered normal while men aren't encouraged to. So, as we moved on from the ages of caves and hunting, have we not let go of gender roles that cause serious imbalances in the workforce today?

- Mandaara Sudheendra