The Workplace: Clear Evidence of Gender Bias?

Back in middle school I always wondered why some work fields are mostly comprised of men and other fields are majorly constituted of women. For example, as I look out of my car window passing by construction sites, I notice how all the construction workers were male. In fact, I have yet to see a female construction worker. On the other hand, as I observe my surroundings while waiting in line to buy lunch at school, I notice that most, if not all, the lunch cashiers were female. Then, I pose the question: why? Why are some jobs dominated by men while others are completely made up of female workers? 

I have always pondered this question until I read About Men. It was after I read Ehrlich's essay when all the pieces of this puzzle came together and aligned themselves into a plausible answer to this puzzling question. Ehrlich illustrates how there are women “who use their ‘fragileness’ to avoid work or as a sexual ploy, [while] there are men who try to hide theirs.”  Throughout her argument, Ehrlich debunks this common misconception by demonstrating that men and women are all fragile to the same degree; it is just the assumed gender roles of society that cause these false differences in the “fragileness” between men and women. These assumed gender differences in “fragileness” account for the many phenomena in the workforce. It is because of a women’s role to be expressive about her “fragileness” that repels her from jobs like construction. They are simply thought to be too “fragile” to handle the tough, demanding physical drilling and hammering that is required of a construction worker. 

This is one of many fields this phenomenon occurs in; engineering and medicine are some of these fields just to name a few. The next revolutionary invention just might be in the head of a stay-at-home mother that has wrongly been subjected to the unjust gender role that society has placed on her.