Blog 12

I think that occupational segregation would happen no matter what laws we do or could have against discrimination. Discrimination, especially gender fueled discrimination, is a part of our lives everyday due to the way that we are socialized as children and on into life. While everyone does not hold that belief that men should be strong and women should be fragile, every single person can give examples from their life when they have heard that saying or been taught to believe that saying. When we are young, boys play with trucks and are told to grow up to be strong men while girls play with dolls and are told to grow up to be caring women which helps us to shape the gendered perceptions that will eventually permeate into every aspect of our lives, including our work life. I think it is also hard to escape gender discrimination because there are inherent differences between men and women in regards to biology so many people use these differences to justify their discrimination which is why it is so hard to battle and bring to light compared to other types of discrimination. While men and women are different biologically that does not mean that their differences hinder either one in any way not to effectively do a particular job, they just might bring different skills to the job in order to successfully complete it.
I think that it would only be of benefit to men to have women in male dominated occupations because it would bring a different perspective into such jobs which might help to make it become more successful and efficient. The different skills and personality traits that women can bring into such jobs would help to fuel new ideas and growth in these jobs and the same goes with men entering women dominated jobs as well. By incorporating the opposite sex into a strongly gender dominated occupation, it helps to battle such gender stereotypes that we are taught as children and only by consciously battling such stereotypes will we be able to overcome them and see the harm that they have caused.