Ask an Anti-Feminist!

[TheMessiah]

Men do 92% more dangerous jobs and put their lives on the line - why can't women do more dangerous jobs? That's crazy talk!

Not only can they - I'm in favour of them doing so and feminists have been arguing for it - In fact, in Everydayfeminism there was an article advocating more women on construction working.

For the part that matters - There's certain jobs we see as masculine or feminine in society, and depending on the number of people in them and the demographics, women and men are automatically more likely to opt or deny those jobs - Women are socialized from birth to not try to compete with men and that's noticeable in gender segregation toys, school segregation ("Don't play football with boys, play dolls with your friends", etc.), etc.

Being male-dominated isn't necessarily a problem - that just evidences that men are more likely to opt for that job. Women, if they really want to, can opt for those jobs if they want --- but once you look at University stats, we find that women like to choose different subjects, despite having the opportunity to choose traditional subjects -- that's what happens when you give equal opportunity.

I don't think ''lack of role models'' is the serious problem, if women want it, then go get it - they have the means to do so.

But why? Why are men more likely to choose that job? If you have 50% of the population making drastically different choices, why is that happening? Are female brains wired to automatically follow liberal arts, social sciences or education? Are men's brains wired to be engineers, politicians or CEO's? If, so, what evidence do you have? If not, then how can you say these choices are justified? Why do you think there's certain jobs associated with femininity, usually to do with secondary roles, education and helping people (social services, primary school teachers, nursing, etc.)? Why can I, with absolute certainty, assume that, regardless of which country you come from, there will be more men dominating society and following better paid jobs (no exceptions)?

That's basically a modified version of the argument "if the poor want to be rich, they can just work hard and get out of povery". It's not that simple. Women are socially less likely to go to something when it's male dominated, and that's an observable phenomenon. Having role models is great and helps boosting the credibility of jobs. If I grow up without seeing people of my gender in certain jobs and no one reassures me I can be one of those I'll probably be less likely to think it's a good option for the future

1. Everyday Feminism is just a blog - most women don't want to work in construction; it's generally not a pleasant job and societal gender roles benefit women in that regard; it's seen as a man's job, hence why we don't really see Feminist pressure to work in hard, manual labor. Many women don't like construction because it's unpleasant.

2. Because men and women, do work differently; studies on their brains have found that they will opt for different subjects if given the choice - sure, there may be male CEO's, but there are also male laborers, male bricklayers, male construction workers, etc. These are jobs which men are expected to do.

The comparison between the poor becoming rich and women choosing STEM is disingenuous. The poor can be stopped via economic means, women on the other hand, can't --- evolutionary psychological research has found that men tend to opt for more constructive/manual jobs because of the way their brains are wired. For years, people have attempted to get women into STEM but when they have the choice, they likely opt for more expressive and written subjects than men do.

Women in India for example, are more likely to opt for STEM because liberal arts degrees are simply not an option; their parents will not allow it, same with China. Once you restrict their choice, they are more likely to opt for STEM - but countless attempts have been made to get them into STEM via role models and many just aren't interested.

The critical question is asking women whether they really wan't to get into STEM, rather than making excuses.

Want women in STEM? Encourage them not to opt for useless degrees such as gender studies.