Why does every profession today need to be composed of half men and half women?

newbee: I’m going to assume the question isn’t rhetorical, and answer it as well as I can.

Suppose we have a generation of people, and among those people are the top 1000 potential programmers of the generation. All sorts of things could influence who are among them, such as inborn traits and abilities, experiences, developed ways of thinking and work ethic, and efforts in different areas. Whatever the causes, these people have the potential to change the world with their incredible abilities. Assuming there isn’t anything that would make it particularly more likely for them to be male or female (a claim which many would dispute), it’s reasonable to assume that there would be approximately 500 males and 500 females in the group. When these young men and women are deciding what careers to go into, not all of them will decide to go into programming. If there is something causing the women among them to decide not to go into the field, then fully half of the top people are lost. They will instead go into other professions, where they may not be as successful. A country may look at their numbers of successes in a field, and compare it to another country’s, and remark “Why is it that they have so many more successful people in this area?” and the statistics will show that the other country doesn’t have a larger amount of successful men in that field, they simply took action against the circumstances that were causing them to not have any women go into the field. The failure to do this cause the first country to lose half of their talent, and that’s why they have so much fewer successes in total.

Berel is a young man deciding what field to go into. He rightly feels that becoming a doctor would not be a good fit for him, and looks for other options. He does not know it, but Berel has the potential to be an incredible nurse, and were it an option of serious consideration, this would be clear to him. He would enjoy the career immensely, and do a great job. But it is not an option that he considers; why would he? Men don’t become nurses, women become nurses! And so, Berel instead becomes a third-rate accountant, and nothing becomes of his abilities. His good friend Hirshel, for whom being a kindergarten teacher would have been a dream job that he would have been great at, instead becomes a taxi driver. His sister Fayge becomes an occupational therapist instead of a civil engineer, and wastes her talent at a job she doesn’t like and never really excels at.

Most people don’t have stories like this, and most of those who do generally don’t know what they might have had if the gender roles hadn’t removed many options from their lists. But you asked why people work toward there being an even split between genders in every profession, and stories like this are why. Excluding half the population from a profession means that people have fewer options, and the options they choose instead are often worse.

Now, there are of course many things to consider besides for just how successful a person can be, how much they’ll enjoy their jobs, and how much it will fit the life they’ve planned for themselves. Mixed-gender workplaces come with all sorts of hazards that need to be taken into consideration. A career may generally not be a good fit for one gender for other reasons. All these things need to be carefully considered, and many young people will need to consult a rav about these issues. But if the problems can be mitigated, should we keep people out of these careers anyway, just to preserve the gender roles? Are they truly so important? Are they really worth the tremendous cost?

Is it worth it?

Suppose half the people in the world drive Toyotas and half drive Hondas. Do you think it is reasonable to insist that half the people in engineering school drive Toyotas and half drive Hondas? No, because it’s completely arbitrary and doesn’t affect whether they’ll be a good engineer.

So it makes sense to just let people self select, regardless of whether they drive a Toyota or a Honda.

newbee: What are those reasons why Berel shouldn’t be a nurse and Susan shouldn’t be a police officer? I’m not yet going to deny that such reasons could exist- I’d just like to hear what they are first. Like T613 said, nurses were historically male- in fact, nearly EVERYTHING was historically male as it’s only quite recently that women working in professions became common. At that point specific occupations became associated with women when they tended to work in them more.

However, I don’t believe in affirmative action for jobs like firefighter, in which towns have been sued for not giving women jobs even if this is as a result of not passing standardized physical tests. Hire whomever you’d like, but don’t lower your standards to do so, especially in such a precarious position. (I’m a woman, by the way.)

I have never seen half a man or half a woman working at any job.

A job requiring MUSCLES probably needs a man’s touch. Sometimes a patient is too heavy for a female nurse to lift, sometimes it really is more tzniusdig for a male to be involved in the medical care of another male, IF POSSIBLE. I realize that there are heterim for medical care to be done by one gender for the other, but where possible, it’s really nice to have the option to avoid any issue of tznius all other things being equal.

However, there is absolutely no reason for women to not be able to pursue a career in any field of study that they choose. Especially in view of the fact that many of the husbands are benefitting from the higher income their wives are generating in those less female-traditional job markets, it behooves men to refrain from complaining.

Personally, I am a very old-fashioned lady who believes men should make the parnassah and moms should be home raising their kids properly, something which I do not see too often these days. Unfortunately that seems to be unrealistic in this day and age, but it certainly is not the ideal situation. So if women are already of necessity forced into the workplace,let it be THEIR decision where they want to work and in what field their interests lie. Computer software is not in the sole purview of men.

Ubi, men and women do not have equal mental capabilities.

There are significant differences in the structure and function of male and female brains.

There are differences in processing in the hemispheres of the brain, in processing from the two sides together, in the effect of hormones on brain function, in the size of certain areas of the brain, in the likelihood they’ll suffer from certain brain disorders & etc.

I’m not knowledgeable enough in the biology and chemistry behind this to understand and explain it all, but I can definitely say that men and women process information differently.

It seems obvious from the fact that Torah and Halacha do not regard both genders identically, that the differences between them are profound.

It’s the old theory of ‘birds who need to fly were created with wings and feathers; fish who live in the sea with gills and fins…’

We were each given the brains that will help us carry out our Tafkid.

“Men don’t become nurses, women become nurses! “

I have known many nurses who are men.

“There are significant differences in the structure and function of male and female brains.”

No, there aren’t. The within-sex differences overwhelm the between-sex differences.

“I’m not knowledgeable enough in the biology and chemistry behind this to understand and explain it all”

That is obvious!

Oh please, there’s a perfectly good reason (among others) why men don’t care care of small children – statistically speaking the overwhelming majority child molesters are men. Obviously that’s not to say all men are molesters or even that the majority of men interested in caring for small children are, however better safe than sorry. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with a strange man changing my small children’s diapers and even though I may be over on dan adam l’chaf zchut, I’d raise an eyebrow at any guy who would want to do that for a living.

In the business world, there are many negotiating and sales situations where a man commands more respect and authority than a woman just by virtue of his gender. I’m not saying that’s right, but I’m also not saying it’s necessarily always wrong – liberal non-profits seem to be fine with social experiments but when you want to make money often you can’t buck long held rules of human nature and society. Obviously there are exceptions but that’s the general way of things.

Just to clarify what I said earlier, I don’t believe that there is any reason why a woman couldn’t theoretically be totally fit enough to be a firefighter or anything else involving physical strength- there are female weight trainers, for example, who can lift a lot. But standards shouldn’t be lowered so that those who really can’t do it are now allowed in. Let people work in the jobs that they are fit for, physically, emotionally and intellectually, without regard to gender.

newbee: Hair styling was a male endeavor in America for many years. Isn’t one of the “Blue Laws” in some places that women can’t cut hair?