More and more men enter traditionally female job sectors such as education or nursing. They are motivated by a chance to gain job stability, financial security and more time for family. While it is a rather positive trend for men and their families, it makes the situation of women on the labour market a little bit more difficult again.
Contemporary sociological and economic literature describes the situation of women on the labour market in great detail. We know that when women have entered the market and started to gradually penetrate into the male world, they have also started to face the invisible barrier preventing them from entering higher management roles, the so-called glass ceiling. Now they face another obstacle in the form of the so-called glass escalator. It is a term that refers to the fact that men are promoted more quickly to higher positions even in the female sectors.
On the Forbes website, Caren Goldberg, assistant professor at the Kogod School of Business in Washington who specializes in the research of glass elevator, explained this phenomenon on the example of nursing. While US men hold less than 5% of the nursing positions, many more than 5% of them hold higher positions such as administrators of hospitals. Research shows that men are climbing up the career ladder in the female sectors even faster than in the male ones. Certainly, they earn more money.
Goldberg sees a partial cause of the glass elevator in the fact that women frequently interrupt their careers to take care of their children or parents. Another major factor is the stereotype of men as strong leaders which favours men in the women's environment. The reason why there are still relatively few men in the female sectors lies only in culture. For example, men working as nurses are still viewed as effeminate and being ridiculed in their surroundings.
In the short term, the penetration of men to the female sectors can be seen as a future problem. In the long run, however, it can be beneficial for the salaries of women, Goldberg concludes.
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