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To flip the question around: why is it OK to have industries (any industry, really) dominated by men?

hypertele-Xii 3y ago
Yeah, it's unfair to women that men get to do all the plumbing, mining, construction, warfare, etc. demand equality!
barelyauser 3y ago
It is OK because caring is loving. From those who can, for those who need. If a profession demands masculine traits (consider underground mining) then it should be performed by those who can make the most of it. If we insist on having under performing people on those positions based on some ideology then all will suffer . When someone dies we will have to face the reality that the cure could have been here now if the local mining facility had produced more steel, to make one more car, to get that researcher to the lab in time, to produce the cure. Everything has consequences, and it is logical that we should do our best.
- askvictor 3y ago
  Sure, some industries have some natural gendered 'preferences'. But a lot are historical. Women have only been in the workforce for 100 odd years, and there is decreasing desire/need to be having babies all of the time. And in some professions, the gender divide is more of a self-perpetuating cycle (there are examples of this for both sexes), based on the historical workforce, rather than being inherently suited to one sex.
the_third_wave 3y ago
And to flip that around again, why is it OK to have the majority of college admissions going to women? Especially in some fields women dominate, e.g. 95% of veterinary students are women. Is that OK and if so, why is the opposite a problem?
globular-toast 3y ago
Given that men and women are very different, if people are allowed to or even incentivised to do what they are good at and/or want to do then of course you will end up with industries being more or less dominated by either gender. The only way you won't get that is by not allowing people to do what they're good at because of their genitalia which I think is very much not ok. Or perhaps if men and women weren't very different, which they obviously are.

Yeah, it's unfair to women that men get to do all the plumbing, mining, construction, warfare, etc. demand equality!

It is OK because caring is loving. From those who can, for those who need. If a profession demands masculine traits (consider underground mining) then it should be performed by those who can make the most of it. If we insist on having under performing people on those positions based on some ideology then all will suffer . When someone dies we will have to face the reality that the cure could have been here now if the local mining facility had produced more steel, to make one more car, to get that researcher to the lab in time, to produce the cure. Everything has consequences, and it is logical that we should do our best.

askvictor 3y ago
Sure, some industries have some natural gendered 'preferences'. But a lot are historical. Women have only been in the workforce for 100 odd years, and there is decreasing desire/need to be having babies all of the time. And in some professions, the gender divide is more of a self-perpetuating cycle (there are examples of this for both sexes), based on the historical workforce, rather than being inherently suited to one sex.

the_third_wave 3y ago

And to flip that around again, why is it OK to have the majority of college admissions going to women? Especially in some fields women dominate, e.g. 95% of veterinary students are women. Is that OK and if so, why is the opposite a problem?

globular-toast 3y ago

Given that men and women are very different, if people are allowed to or even incentivised to do what they are good at and/or want to do then of course you will end up with industries being more or less dominated by either gender. The only way you won't get that is by not allowing people to do what they're good at because of their genitalia which I think is very much not ok. Or perhaps if men and women weren't very different, which they obviously are.