Nico Crisostomo Crisostomo 1
Renee Swindle
English 370
November 11th 2012

Jobs & Gender

There is a wide variety of jobs and careers available to both men and women in our society today, whether it is in the Medical Field, Engineering, Science, Technology, and Healthcare, we have them all. If you look at the different workplaces and career fields, you would find both men and women working along with each other performing the same identical jobs and functions, but in certain career fields, there are still certain positions that are being classified based specifically on the applicant’s gender even after all the laws that are imposed against doing so are in place such as anti-sexism and anti-discrimination. It just so happens that it is still going on in our workforce today usually behind the hiring employer’s closed doors. In addition, there has been a lot of criticisms and discussions as well regarding the classifications of jobs based on gender claiming that such policies are unfair, unruly, and against the law since it is preventing the certain gender of equal opportunities, further employment, and limiting benefits. Such example are women serving in the Armed Forces being prohibited from serving in the battlefield and warzones thus preventing them from receiving certain entitlements and benefits such as hazard pay, combat pay, and hostility pay which basically adds Crisostomo 2

more earnings to their salary, but with the unfair policies and regulations of the military, women have no way of receiving such entitlements due to the fact that they are prohibited to perform certain tasks and assignments because of their gender, regardless of their skills and capabilities. Furthermore, there has been other types of discussions and arguments as well regarding the qualifications of jobs based on gender such as the essay “Nontraditional Jobs” by Jennifer Mcelroy, a female student who attended Diman Technical High Shool and was criticized by one of her school counselors and some of her classmates for pursuing a career in auto body which is a career mostly dominated by men. Mcelroy states, “It just made me a stronger person and made me push farther for what I wanted” (536) indicated that she took the challenge even harder and put up to the test for entering a male dominated career, she then ended up as the most outstanding student out of all the other male students in her class when they graduated. Stories like Mcelroy’s proves that gender should prove no boundaries when it comes to opportunities as long as one can perform such functions and responsibilities. Just like Mcelroy states in her essay, “If someone has the knowledge and experience to do what needs to be done, then why it should matter what sex they are?” (536). On the other hand, there has been other proof and evidence as well as to why gender should not matter when it comes to performing certain work, and it is everywhere. Some examples are Female Firefighters, Male Babysitters, and Female Pilots. They may seem very few and unusual but it definitely shows