Nursing, teaching: low wages for jobs that were once considered women’s work
While I usually like anything that danah boyd writes, I am a bit surprised and disappointed by the way she framed this post about feminism, sexism, and the way society values nursing and teaching:
When my mother was entering the professional world, there were pretty much three options for women: teacher, nurse, secretary. Many women did not work and those who did were highly motivated, passionate, and underpaid. When barriers were eradicated, women left these professions to seek jobs in other fields that were better respected. Nurses were often just as knowledgeable about medicine as doctors and yet doctors were more greatly valued. Not surprisingly, as the years went by, many women who wanted to enter medicine chose to become doctors instead of nurses because the professional rewards were so much greater. When the sex barriers collapsed, women sought out “men’s jobs” because they were higher paying, higher prestige, and more flexible.
…The problem is what has happened since then. I certainly don’t want to go back to the dark ages where women had no choice. But while we’ve opened up doors for women, we haven’t addressed how sexism framed nursing and teaching in ways that are causing us tremendous headaches in society today. Teachers are underpaid and undervalued because we took women’s work for granted. When teaching stopped being women’s work, we didn’t rework our thinking about teaching. As a society, we still have little respect for teachers and nurses and we pay them abysmally. This is deeply rooted in the sexism of the past but the ripple effects today are costly.
Is the problem really “deeply rooted in the sexism of the past”? Isn’t it, clearly, deeply rooted in the sexism of the present?
I am even troubled by the title of the post:
teaching, nursing, and second wave feminism
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to title the post:
teaching, nursing, and sexism
I mean, the problem isn’t feminism, right? The problem is sexism?
This sentence set off a strong reaction in me:
I get uncomfortable thinking about the societal consequences of second wave feminism, especially since I’ve personally benefited from it so much.
I get uncomfortable with supposedly progressive people who lack confidence about the benefits of progressive reforms. Either you believe it is good to empower people with freedom, or you don’t. If you don’t, then your politics are not progressive. If you do, then you focus on the need to continue to fight against oppressive practices that continue to operate in the present era.
Also, I think there is a larger context here, which is the erosion of wages in America from 1973 to 1995, and then again from 2001 to the present. It would be easier for America to complete its social transformation if only the economy could recover the vigor it enjoyed 1945-1973, when wages were rising rapidly for both men and women. America’s social transformation is likely to remain partial, incomplete and broken till such time as the economy recovers its health. And by “health” I am not referring to the short-term crisis of the current recession, but to the long-term crisis that has seen the broad collapse of America’s once secure middle class.