Today more than ever, men are making the choice to start non-traditional careers. As the economy struggles to bounce back, men are now working in fields that were typically dominated by women.
Non-traditional careers are defined as ones in which more than 75 percent of the workforce is of the opposite gender. These career changes not only allow employees to follow their dreams and find career satisfaction, but they also benefit society as well. They unlock gender bias, and employees who are the first of their gender to succeed open doors for others. For men, this economy is opening new doors to finding careers they can be passionate about.
Nursing
In the 2000 popular romantic comedy, “Meet The Parents,” actor Ben Stiller plays the role of a male nurse hoping to marry into a family dominated by Robert De Niro’s character, a patriarch with a CIA past. The male nurse juxtaposed with an intimidating future father-in-law is a source of comedy in the movie and its sequels. Since the release of that movie, male nurses are still rare, but their numbers are growing.
The most recent national nursing survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration reports that men accounted for 6.6 percent of all RNs in 2008, up from 5.8 percent in the 2004 survey.
“My reasons for entering this profession were the same as everybody else’s: great pay, career satisfaction and the chance to make a difference in the lives of my patients,” says Trevor, a male nurse at St. Luke’s Roosevelt hospital in Manhattan. He recommends nursing as a viable profession for men. Options in the field can include becoming a clinical nurse, nurse specialist, nurse midwife, nurse anesthetist, or working in non-patient care positions.
Lincoln was a male nurse delivery specialist in the 1990s. He was the last resort for women delivering by natural childbirth who “needed a little help.” When the 6-foot, 250-pound nurse was called in, he would help deliver the baby by using his elbows and upper torso to help maneuver the newborn into position for a natural delivery. Lincoln says that he is “a mother’s best friend” when it comes to labor and delivery. His title is not a “midwife,” but rather a non-gender specific “labor and delivery specialist.” Regardless of Lincoln’s title, when it comes to babies, he delivers!
Child care
Men are not only working to help deliver babies, they are also working in the child care industry. Male nannies, or “mannies,” were dubbed the new Mary Poppins in 2006. The idea of men as professional caregivers for babies and toddlers was popularized by the hype around Holly Peterson’s 2007 novel, “The Manny,” and celebrities like Brittany Spears, Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and Michael DeWitt, when they hired guys to do the job. (Celebrity mannies may also have to double as body guards for the kids.) Now, many agencies that help college students find employment offer “manny” placement positions.
Benefits of hiring a manny include providing gender balance or a high level of physical activity and energy for the children. Men can be just as engaging as women, and a qualified manny with the same interests as your kids may prove to be a tremendous asset to them and the home.
Teaching
Do you remember your child having a male teacher in elementary school? Most people can’t. However, Brooklyn elementary school student Maximillion has had two male teachers in the past four years — in the second and fifth grades. In the second grade, Max, and many of his classmates, assumed that his male and female homeroom teachers were married to each other, because they got along very well, and it was his first time seeing a man and woman working together outside of the home.
When the class began sharing information about their families and personal lives, the teachers explained that they both had significant others. The class also discussed how people can work together and get along with others without being married, which helped the students to understand the relationship between their teachers.
Although men account for about 30 percent of those employed in educational services as a whole, they tend to gravitate towards teaching positions within colleges, universities and technical or trade schools.
According to the National Education Association, only 17 percent of elementary level teachers are male. However, men represent about a third of middle school teachers and about half of high school teachers. There has been a global push in education to hire more men in the classroom in general at every grade level.
Secretaries
Male secretaries are few and far between, but they do exist! Two men, both named Bob, are working as legal secretaries at prestigious New York law firms. Both are also pursuing careers in the creative arts, and are working in their current jobs because their bosses understand and support their artistic endeavors.
“I invite the whole firm to my performances, and actually have a solid following at work,” says one Bob, an actor. “It helps working with someone that is a patron of the arts.”
“It beats waiting tables, and my boss is reasonable,” says the other.
According to Dr. Randall Hansen, author, educator and founder of Quintessential Careers (www.quintcareers.com), there are more non-traditional careers for women than for men. Perhaps that is because there have been more employment initiatives for women in the government, public and private sectors to assist them. However, it is not clear whether men were ever precluded from non-traditional career paths. They simply may have snubbed these traditionally female jobs for higher pay, better benefits, or more glamorous titles:
• Bank tellers
• Bookkeepers
• Cashiers
• Child care workers
• Clerical/administrative support workers
• Cosmetologists
• Court reporters
• Dental assistants and hygienists
• Elementary and middle school teachers
• Flight attendants
• Hair stylists
• Home health aides
• Hotel clerks
• Librarians
• Maids and housekeepers
• Nurses
• Occupational and physical therapists
• Receptionists
• Secretaries
• Sewing machine operators
• Social workers
• Speech pathologists
• Teacher assistants
At a time when it is hard to find and keep employment, any job seems like a good job. Hopefully, this gender-bending economy will allow more people to express themselves and find satisfaction in non-traditional careers. Personally, I would enjoy seeing more “gendrification” in my all-too-female world. Especially if the men are doing work that they love. You know the saying, “if you combine something you love with something you’re good at, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”
Candi Sparks is the author of the “Can I Have Some Money?” children’s money book series, sold on Amazon.com and other retail sites. She is the Brooklyn mother of two and is on FaceBook (Candi Sparks Author).
