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Ryan Healy is a recent college graduate. He is a founder of 
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I went to my five year high school reunion last Friday. It was a lot of fun. I was able to see my best friend Keith who just spent the past 15 months teaching in Japan and traveling third world countries. I spoke with old friends whom I’ve kept in contact with and talked to old acquaintances that I may or may not have ran across on Facebook. Some people looked exactly the same, others were nearly unrecognizable. All in all, it was an interesting experience.
The most memorable part of the night had to be when an ex-classmate stumbled up to Keith and me with two full drinks in hand.
“Ryan Healy. I saw you on 60 minutes. Wow, we’ve come a long ways since listening to Bone Thugs N Harmony in eighth grade.”
I replied, “Hey man, we sure have!”
He then proceeded to dump his full vodka and tonic into his other full vodka and tonic; no joke. Of course, the drink had to go somewhere, and that somewhere ended up being all over my sweater.
I’ve had my fair share of drinks spilled on me over the years, so I wasn’t too upset. But then he decided to fall into me and drool all over my shoes. This was a little too much for me to handle. So I gave him a quick pat on the back and wished him well.
Apparently, he hasn’t come quite as far as he thinks since the old days. But somebody’s got to be that guy, right?
Anyway, back to the point. You cannot go through a high school reunion without asking and answering the question, “What are you doing these days?” It gets annoying to answer, but I’m always interested to hear from others.
After a couple hours of telling my life story and intently listening to everyone else’s life stories, Keith and I bumped into each other and decided it was time to take a break and hide out in the corner next to the food. We came to a very interesting realization. A huge majority of females from the Cheshire High School class of 2002 were social workers, teachers, or nurses.
I was totally surprised. My life since college has been spent in two places; an overly expensive city dominated by the federal government and consulting firms, and online with bloggers, web designers and entrepreneurs. Keith spent his time teaching eight year olds in Japan and hanging out with Japanese fishermen at night. Neither of us had any idea how popular these three career paths have become. And in all honesty, I’m still wondering if my town is an anomaly, and not representative of our generation as a whole.
I certainly hope this is representative of our generation. All three of these careers are not only extremely important to our country, our children and our economy, but they are personally rewarding as well. Nurses save lives, teachers shape lives and depending where they work, social workers do both.
Nursing has been ranked as one of the most popular careers for 2007, but the other two aren’t typically in the top ten. Further, there isn’t a whole lot of money in these fields. People are pursuing them because they are meaningful jobs, because they have a passion for helping people, and because they are rewarding. And honestly, what else can you ask for from a job?
My questions now are, why are an overwhelmingly large percentage of women pursuing these paths? Are we going back to a society where men are expected to bring in the money, not because women are staying home, but because women are pursuing the truly rewarding and important careers? Or is my town just an anomaly?
Popularity: 8%
I don’t know the answer to your question, Ryan, but if women are looking for a flexible career then there is another option that they are overlooking. Science! Scientists are in such demand that government and private industry will accommodate insanely flexible schedules. Plus, the job pays extremely well and any time that you are ready to throw yourself into your career, you will be rewarded with opportunities to travel and move up.
I had a female teaching assistant in chemistry point this out to me early on in college. I have thanked her many times over. Life is good!
I don’t think this is just your town. My small hometown is much the same. Most of girls I know that went to school either went into teaching or nursing (I would say 75% or more from my informal poll at my last hometown bar hopping experience). Not sure why. Nursing seems to pay very well and is rewarding. Also, every nursing school always seem to say they are the best nursing school, or at least the students insist it. At least someone is willing to do it!
It’s definitely not just your town. I think more women gravitate towards these careers for several reasons. They’re rewarding, they bring out the nurturing side in women, and they generally provide flexibility for them when it comes time to start a family.
I agree with you that all these positions are critically important, I’m glad to see women continuing to pursue them. Many men would find these jobs highly rewarding if they pursued them, but with the exception of nursing, it’s tough to make a living in these professions. My wife is a teacher and I find I’m often envious of the impact she has on the young minds in her classroom. If not for the ridiculous payscale I’d be tempted to join her, but as you also mentioned I bring in the money and she gets the rewarding career. The other side of that is I can take some pride in that by being the primary breadwinner, I’m in a small way helping her make a difference.
My mother, sister, and sister-in-law are all teachers, my other sister-in-law is a nurse, and my father a pseudo-social worker (minister). I can see that they chose those professions because they had the honest desire to do these things, and money wasn’t really an issue. Many people choose ‘business’ or something similar because they have no idea what to do. Also, a teaching, nursing, or social work usually degree doesn’t require an expensive post-grad degree or private college, and someone can usually get started in the workplace with a 2 year community college degree.
Ryan,
there’s a reason that social work, teaching, and nursing are “pink collar jobs.” They’re not high-power, high-paying jobs, and therefore, they are easier to get into for women. For all the progress that has been made toward empowering women, there are still amazing setbacks keeping them in these sorts of jobs. I remember when I realized that in my own life, I had no second thoughts about being able to apply to Harvard, but that it was only the year after I was born that they allowed women to go there. Amazing!
A good book you might want to pick up is “Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men–And What to Do About It” by Evelyn Murphy. She details the amazing ways in which women are held back in careers, from harassment to assumptions that women don’t want promotions because they have children.
I take a bit of offense to Scott comment that these careers “bring out the nurturing side in women.” This is such a stereotype, that women are nurturing, therefore they should be childcare workers or teachers. Men can also be nurturing, it’s just considered a weakness for them. And it’s a weakness for women through the male perspective. Why would you hire a woman to be a venture capitalist? After all, she’s just going to want to have babies and not work very hard, etc. It’s an age old argument that needs to die.
It’s an uphill struggle for women to succeed in other careers, but we need to keep pushing. We need to provide support for women trying to climb the ladder in male dominated careers. There’s still a glass ceiling; half of all law school grads today are women, and yet they are partner in less than 10% of firms.
I hope that after highlighting this pink collar trend, you will follow up with a profile of a woman who’s breaking into a male dominated field and doing well.
Informally, I’d say your observations are spot on with what I’ve seen in my circles as well - a lot of women I went to school with and currently know are in teaching and health care work. Of the 5 women I knew best in college, 4 of them are either teaching or nursing. I’d like to see some hard numbers though - anecdotal evidence is hardly proof.
One small correction to your post - while I can’t speak for teachers and social workers, nurses are paid extremely well. My wife graduated with a BS in nursing, and if you are willing to brave hospital work (hardest, longest and most prone to burnout) the financial rewards can be lucrative. Her first job out of college was salaried above $60K with INSANE benefits. In a major metropolitan area, I know experienced nurses who are pulling down six-figures.
There is a huge need for nurses (something to do with boomers exiting stage-right and X-ers not wanting to take “traditionally feminine jobs”), so health care facilities have to pay handsomely to attract them.
@Kate. I have never heard of the term “pink collar” before, that’s an interesting way of looking at it. However, I don’t see anything wrong with wanting these “pink collar” jobs. All the women I talked to were totally into what they were doing and enjoyed their work. The guys, not so much. That being said, I do see the need to support women who do want to enter these “high powered” fields. I just hope women don’t start blowing off these “pink collar” jobs to jump into a field they don’t really enjoy.
@Mike. Good point, nurses are paid very well. My friend is working 3 nights a week as a nurse in New York and was making well more than I was as a consultant in DC. However, there is a cap on what they can make. If you go into a business related field, man or woman, there is always hope of making insane amounts of money. Nurses can make a good amount, but tend to cap off as they advance.
I’ve kept in touch with many of my high school classmates through Facebook, and it seems the majority of women have gone into business, law, or teaching. A few have dabbled in modeling or want to be a model. I went to a small prep school, so this may be an anomaly.
I guess I’m surprised that this is surprising. At least nursing and teaching has always been very traditionally careers women take. I’m sort of with Kate in a way. Though I don’t really find it offensive, because I know plenty of women who dream of being nurses and teachers since they were young.
I’m sort of with Kate but in the way that these careers are in such high demand it could be that the market is just in high support of women (or men) who want to pursue these fields. More competitive fields may not be so popular because less people are able to find or succeed in getting a position. I saw an article from the American Psychological Assoc a long time ago that said that women take these traditional careers because as an engineer or other as they say “traditionally male-dominated fields” they find a lot of negativity. It’s a few years old but it’s interesting at least:
www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/women.html
I don’t know, I think it’s great that there are people (both men and women) who can work as teachers and nurses cause I don’t think I could do either. I could probably do social work but it would break my heart. More power to these women.
If you’re from a small town, it’s likely that teachers, nurses and social workers are some of the few professionals that young people encounter there on a regular basis. When I was growing up, I lived in a very rural area. I didn’t know any lawyers or business people, and only 1 doctor–our family doctor. But I knew lots of teachers.
I also agree with Kate to a certain extent–that because these jobs are dominated by women, it is easier for women to see themselves in these roles and easier for them to advance. While these are extremely important professions, I worry that so many women choose them because they don’t feel that they have equal access to other equally rewarding and higher paying professions.
And while it’s true that nursing pays well, being a doctor pays better. An interesting question might be: why did you choose to be a nurse rather than a doctor?
A couple things:
1. A big draw for any of those three careers are that they’re fairly easy to move in and out of, if women should so choose. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll want to stay home when I have children, but I can guarantee you I’ve had to think about it when considering things like the cost of grad school in a field that is not so easy to leave and reenter.
2. No, these jobs are not huge money-makers, but lots of families manage to live just fine with two incomes from one of these professions. Especially in small towns. And I don’t think that women are expecting our men to “bring home the bacon” while we pursue our rewarding careers. If you’re not happy with your career, if you don’t find it rewarding, chances are you’ll be unhappy. So quit and find the job you love, and even if you’re making less money, we’ll make it work and both be happier for it.
As a math major as an undergraduate, the most frequently asked question after the one of my major is “oh so you want to teach?” Imagine their surprise when I told them I wanted to work in the field of finance with stocks (I’d love to be a imvestment manager but that’s a big dream right now). I never felt that drive to be a teacher. Granted, the math education program was about 2/3 female, 1/3 male in my class but I never heard the male math majors asked the teaching question. It’s just assumed that the women math majors are going to teach whereas the male math majors will be more of the geeky stereotypes and make millions solving some great equation.
Has anyone thought about this issue from a global perspective?
I won’t argue that there are forces that encourage women to take those sorts of jobs, but here’s another though.
In the globalized world, there isn’t much job security. Young people can expect to have 10-15 jobs by the time they’re 35, and can easily be laid off if the job can be done cheaper overseas.
We’ve grown-up with this phenomenon and have watched our parents and other adults lose their “secure” job for no reason at all. Huge layoffs are now so common that they don’t even make the main page of the paper anymore.
But guess what jobs can’t be outsourced? And guess what jobs will have tons of openings when the baby boomers retire? AND, guess what jobs are guaranteed to be needed in the future when the baby boomers start needing care and when our generation starts having kids.
The answer is: Teaching and nursing!
Those young women might be gravitating towards professions based on a system that channels them there, but if they want job security, they’re making a fantastic choice.
That still means we need to highlight women who are making their mark in other professions, but it also wouldn’t be a bad idea to urge some guys in the direction of teaching and nursing as well!
Well, I think I may be a little late responding to this article but nursing and social work are definetely rewarding careers. Nurses have the opportunity to advance in the field by becoming nurse practitioners. These nurse practitioners-from what I have heard make around 70K-80K or higher. It is rewarding because they can also specialize in areas such as oncology, midwifery, mental health, endocrinology, and the list goes on. Nurse Practitioners(NP) practice pretty much the same as doctors in certain clinical settings, with the opportunity of advanced assessment, diagnosing, and prescribing medications. The pay is good and the work is rewarding.
Social workers,on the other hand, have come a long way because with a master’s degree can operate in the government and mental health settings. In certain mental health setting, a master’s degree in social work can allow the social worker to practice psychotherapy to patients just like a psychologist. It is very rewarding and pays pretty well.
I think that these jobs are being overlooked in some ways because it may not pay six-figures. If you are really looking for Great!!! pay, then nursing is definitely the way to go.