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Patriarchal Thinking — It’s All In A Name

Apr 26, 2018
by Caroline Miller
blue collar work, breaking job stereotypes, Claire Cain Miller, pink collar work, Why men resist pink collar jobs
2 Comments

Courtesy of www.news.cn

Yesterday’s blog (1/31/17) was about blue-collar workers and the potential for them to find new jobs in computer coding.  That’s good news.  But the job market has had a number of work opportunities for some time which men have been slow to consider.  I’m talking about pink collar opportunities — work traditionally performed by women.  Case in point.  When I taught school, a male teacher in the earlier years — kindergarten through grade 6 —  was practically unknown.  Likewise there were few male nurses or nurse practitioners or home healthcare workers.

Blue collar jobs have an aura of being physical and, therefore,  “manly.”  We refer to pink collar jobs as those that require empathy and caring.  This stereotypical thinking makes us forget that moving a 300 lb. patient into and out of bed requires more strength than turning a wrench on an assembly line. Hospitals are so desperate for male workers, says writer Claire Cain Miller, they are repackaging their job descriptions to emphasize these manly aspects. “…comparing the adrenaline rush of working as an  ER nurse to mountain climbing.” (“Why men resist ‘pink collar jobs’,”by Claire Cain Miller,  excerpted from The New York Times in The Week, January 20, 2017, pg. 34.)

More than  a fifth of American men are without employment, yet a host of pink collar jobs remain unfilled.  (Ibid pg. 34)  Surely, aiding the sick, the elderly and the young counts as much in our society as digging for coal.  Surely, having a pay check is more satisfying than collecting unemployment or writing angry letters to Congress. 

Pink collar work doesn’t command the salaries of blue-collar work, it’s true.  But as men enter these fields, that inequality is changing. (Ibid pg. 34.)  In the meantime, there are pluses beyond a fat paycheck.  Pink collar jobs won’t move to  third world countries.  Many come with solid health care benefits and vacation packages. Like being an ultrasound technician, a variety of them don’t require a college degree   

Chucking out prejudices that divide men’s work from women’s is an idea whose time has come. Jobs are out there.  What’s required is a little mental adjustment.  Labor is neither blue or pink  but thinking makes it so.

(Originally published 2/1/17)

 

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2 Comments
  1. Dale Hess February 3, 2017 at 8:52 am Reply
    I remember the surprise I felt when I noticed that they had changed the mode for carrying young babies around from something that suggested nurture to something that suggested carrying a burden. I was puzzled, at first, as I saw more and more couples out in public with the father carrying the baby. Then I noticed that the front-pack or back-pack arrangement allowed the men to pretend they were carrying a bag of cement. Perfect! The men get to be manly, the women get to be grateful, and the babies get to be carried.
    • Caroline Miller February 3, 2017 at 9:19 am Reply
      All solutions are possible if we think out of the box. Thanks for your comment, Dale.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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