In terms of job and career options, many women are exposed to and encouraged to take different career paths than those which men may take. Many of these careers focus on care professions such as nurses. When many women declare they are going into the medical field, people tend to immediately assume they mean they want to be a nurse. I have had this be the situation with a few friends down at U of I who have explained how people take it when they say they are going into the medical profession. Being pressured into careers like this tells them that making sure that other’s needs are met is more important than their own needs and firmly pushes them towards a serving role in society. Some people, including women, find it odd or a problem if a woman wants to hold a higher position. Part of this may be fueled by the cultural expectation that the man is supposed to be the primary breadwinner and earn more than his wife. If a woman takes a higher paying, higher position role it may seem odd if she makes more than her husband.
Men are pressured into career paths such as doctors or surgeons and higher up medical professions. Men are often turned away from nurse positions because it is seen as a more feminine position. Men who do end up choosing to become a nurse are looked down upon and often mocked such as in a number of T.V. shows and other media where a patient gets a nurse and when they find out it is a male they are rather upset about it or find it odd. Men are taught that they are supposed to take the higher positions and that nurse positions are below them. There is also the factor of income and doctors and surgeons make more than nurses. Historically men have been seen as the “breadwinners” earning all or most of the income of the family. This goes back even to the Great Depression where even though families were broke and starving, men refused to allow their wives to work. When a man is unable to be the primary source of income for his family, his masculinity is often challenged.
These roles tell women that they are to serve the rest of society and men are taught that they are supposed to be leaders in their fields. Women who break this trend and become doctors or surgeons are often frowned upon as breaking norms and stealing the position from a male. Men who break their role and take a more care-style position such as a nurse are sometimes encouraged for taking this role and being selfless but are more often frowned upon as taking a female’s position and wasting his potential on a lower position. Because of these assumptions and the mostly negative labels put those who break the norms, women and men usually stick to their roles.