Men in non-traditional work

1 October 2007

Workplaces around the country have been transformed in the past two to three decades by breaking down gender barriers that have long surrounded many jobs.

Initially it was women looking beyond traditional "women's work". The female nurses on the hospital ward were joined by female doctors; other women donned hard hats to become engineers; and others broke out of the women's pages of the newspaper to become general news reporters. We've gradually seen women join the judge's bench and take leading roles in other formerly all-male occupations. These days more than one in three family doctors are female and one-in-ten new recruits to the fire service are women. Now some women are taking up trade apprenticeships to become plumbers and electricians.

Although the changes have not been so dramatic, some men have also crossed the boundaries in the other direction, notably in areas such as nursing, where 6.5% of registered nurses are male. In the air, you are as likely to be served your refreshments by a male cabin attendant as a female one. However, there are other jobs that remain overwhelmingly "female" and it's a situation that some commentators think it is in our interests to change. In 1992, two percent of staff in early childhood centres (kindergartens, childcare centres home-based childcare/education services) were men. Statistics for 2005 show men now making up just under one percent of staff.