Ms. Programmer and Mr. Nanny: How women and men function in professions unusual for their genders

Women in masculinised professions and men in feminised professions feel that they have a special status in their work environments. Both genders believe that being an "occupational gender minority" involves specific tasks, both related to the content of the work itself and those of a social nature, according to a study by Dr. Olga Czeranowska, a sociologist at SWPS University.

Male preschool teachers or women in working in car shops are still relatively rare, as the labour market remains divided into stereotypically "female" and "male" professions. The former are usually characterised by lower salaries, worse working conditions and lower prestige. Additionally, each gender is stereotypically assigned specific traits and innate qualifications. In the case of "male" professions, these are traits such as physical strength and rational thinking, while in the case of "female" professions, they include are the ability to recognize emotions or to work with children.

Despite the prevailing stereotypes, some people choose jobs that are not consistent with the expectations of their gender, thus becoming gender minorities in their professional groups.

Occupational gender minorities in the labor market

Dr. Olga Czeranowska, author of the paper Women in Masculinized Occupations, Men in Feminized Occupations: Experiences of Gender Occupational Minorities and Their Roles within the Occupational Group published in the journal Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej ["Qualitative Sociology Review"], analysed the experiences of "occupational gender minorities" in the Polish labour market, as well as their roles within their professional groups. The sociologist focused on highly qualified employees: women working in IT/new technologies and men working in childcare/education. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 27 people (13 women and 14 men).

We focused on their professional lives and how choosing a gender-atypical occupation translated into career development opportunities, professional identity and interactions with co-workers and recipients of work (students, patients, clients). We also took into account the impact of gender-atypical occupation on private life, explains Dr. Olga Czeranowska, a sociologist and head of the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Warsaw, SWPS University.

Being the outlier at work

The first interesting conclusion from the study is that the surveyed men, to a greater extent than women, had a sense of being unique and standing out in the workplace. Men often assumed that their physical appearance was responsible for their recognition, distinguishing them from their female colleagues. Men also noted that their status was associated with certain benefits, especially in terms of better treatment by co-workers, but also helped them establish contacts in professional life. However, there were no clear references to the “glass escalator” phenomenon^[1], meaning an easier advancement path for men in typically feminised work environments.

While Professor Małgorzata Fuszara's publication Dobrze jest być rodzynkiem, czyli mężczyźni w zawodach sfeminizowanych^[2] ("It is good to be an outlier, or men in feminized professions") focuses on men in typically female professions, this sentiment also emerged in the stories of interviewed women. For example, one interviewee woman working in IT felt that she was "getting great support and also a lot of advice (...) due to the fact that I am a woman who is present online, somewhere in the IT environment".

The people in the study also felt that being an outlier spared them some of the less pleasant aspects of their jobs. In the case of women in IT, these included conflict situations (especially dealing with aggressive or rude clients). In turn, one of the male preschool teachers said that he was told that the cleaning lady would be ready to help him with the children and he should not be ashamed to ask for her help.

Still, those situations also show that, despite positive interpersonal relations and friendly atmosphere in the workplace, members of occupational gender minorities are seen by their work environment via the lens of gender stereotypes. Consequently, they may be perceived as incapable of dealing with some aspects of the job; their status, therefore, is simultaneously "privileged" and weakened by the lack of trust in their competencies, Dr. Czeranowska emphasises.

Female and male roles at work

The presence of women in masculinised professions and men in female-dominated work environments may also be significant for both their colleagues and the organisation as a whole. Both groups felt that they had a special role to play in their workplace's social life. In both cases, there were references to improving the atmosphere in the workplace due to their presence.

In addition to their social roles, occupational gender minorities may also have different tasks assigned based on gender stereotypes. The "masculine" role in education generally focuses on teaching concrete skills and knowledge - this is why male teachers work mostly with older children. Even in preschools and primary education, men tend to teach children measurable skills in limited time periods (e.g., English, music) rather than spend a whole day with them. Men also emphasised their role in providing children with male role models. It is worth noting, however, that this is a model of caring masculinity, opposing the aggressive models promoted in the media. Some of the interviewees even said that parents themselves saw the lack of men in care settings as a problem and were keen to have a male teacher in charge of their children.

Meanwhile, the stereotypically "feminine" role in the IT/new technologies sector was associated more with social skills and contact with clients (front-end, design, UX) and less with the technical aspects of the work. A recent trend is the feminisation of IT testing jobs, which is seen as a means of entry into the IT sector for people without tertiary technical education.

Interestingly, the interviewed women did not indicate specific elements of work as directly related to their gender, unlike men who spoke, for example, about the male role model they represented. Women also placed much less emphasis on their gender - in their narratives, they focused more on their professional identity, and unlike men, they did not mention physical difference as being important.

The author points out that the course of the stereotypical division into "feminine" and "masculine" occupations is still changing. In her opinion, it would be interesting to include other professional groups in future studies, especially occupations based on physical work. 

^[1] Christine L. Williams (1992), The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the “Female” Professions, “Social Problems”, vol. 39(3), p. 253–267, https://doi.org/10.2307/3096961

^[2] M. Fuszara (2008), Dobrze jest być rodzynkiem, czyli mężczyźni w zawodach sfeminizowanych, [w:] M. Fuszara (ed.), Nowi mężczyźni? Zmieniające się modele męskości we współczesnej Polsce, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Trio, p. 329–360.