"Last week I and several colleagues visited a local technical high school to see what kind of dual-enrollment courses we could offer there. The school was leaps and bounds beyond what technical high schools were known for when I was a student: It had an impressive range of programs, new facilities, dedicated staff and some very poised students. I'd be proud to have them here."
"That said, I couldn't help but notice a pattern that hasn't changed over the decades: gender segregation by field remains robust. The electronics lab and the computer gaming lab were full of young men. The allied health area was almost entirely young women. When I asked the admins there whether that was typical of what they've seen, they responded that it was."
"This week I dropped by a continuing-education conference that the college hosts for dental hygienists. I noticed that the attendees were nearly all women. A woman who runs a complementary program and was in attendance told me that over 98 percent of the dental hygienists in our state are women. Strikingly, she noted that the few men in the field have a terrible time getting hired; dentists are afraid that patients will mistake male hygienists for dentists."
Visits to a local technical high school and a continuing-education conference for dental hygienists revealed persistent gender segregation by field. Electronics and computer gaming labs were dominated by young men, while allied health areas and dental hygiene attendees were overwhelmingly women. Administrators and organizers were aware of these splits and sometimes attempted interventions, yet the patterns persist and in some fields appear to be strengthening. Women are graduating college at higher rates overall, but remain underrepresented in HVAC and cybersecurity and overrepresented in allied health. Male dental hygienists face hiring barriers due to patient and employer perceptions.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]