Why are there still occupations dominated by males/ females?

I have no idea, but it's definitely still true in my industry...oil and gas, heavy industrial.

I had a male dental hygienist once. My first thought was it was weird, then I was immediately ashamed of myself. I loved him!

I guess because men don't choose those careers?
I know a lot of male nurses, but yes most that I know are women.
That has nothing to do with discrimination. It has to do with how many guys have decided to become a nurse.

Misogyny.

And not intentional, by any means. But it's sort of ingrained into men, and I don't think they (for the most part) even realize it. One of the worst (and most common) insults a guy gives another guy is calling him a pussy. Being like a woman is an insult.

When we see women breaking into male-dominated fields, we think it's great. But a guy who goes into a female-dominated field is not so lauded. Anyone see Meet the Parents, with Ben Stiller? One of the running jokes throughout it is that he is a male nurse, instead of a doctor, and he is harassed for doing that. I'm sure the same thing happens IRL.

We still have a long way to go for equality.

My husband was the only male in his surgical tech program. This was about 10 years ago.

I also agree with tincin. I have a friend who is a college professor and a scientist. she had an older male professor tell her she would never get tenure because she had children (she already had tenure when he said this). That's something no one would tell a male. She also had a superior introduce her team to a vistor. All the males were introduced as Dr So and so. she was introduced by just her first name. The visitor question what she did and she had to tell him that she was a doctor, too and was the head of the lab.

There is still a feeling by the 'old guard' that some jobs are just for men and some are just for women. Some of them just aren't quite so obvious as they used to be.

We talk about that at work quite often. We are a family crisis center and out of 107 employees only 4 are men. We have found that the men who do work there really get what we do but it can be uncomfortable at first when dealing with domestic violence, rape, and child abuse.

Many of those positions are seen as subservient or supporting for example a dental hygienist is seen as subservient to or supporting of to the dentist.

I wonder if men still feel uncomfortable being in that sort of role?

Because it's more difficult to support a family on the lower wage position of hygienist?

Men tend to gravitate towards careers where they will be competitive w other men, not women?

Because the time/educational dollar investment in the hygienist position is less than that for a dentist?

Because women tend to want to have a career *and* a family and the hygienist position allows that more easily than the dentist position does?

To me, this is an interesting "big picture" anthropological question to which there can be many answers.

I learned a lot from your post.  I love to hear about men and women in jobs dominated by the opposite gender.  I thought that that was also a reason why less women were in traditional men's careers, because tough work (window cleaners on skyscrapers, road workers, etc.).  I never really thought that women may have wanted these careers, but they were discriminated against.  I hope that changes and both genders can work in these very important jobs.  I really admire you for what you have done for females in your trade!   Thank you for what you are doing!
 
My girls and I as well as my husband, always cheer when we see females driving tractor trailers, etc.  And we love that there are several male nurses in our neighborhood!

I used to work with a woman whose husband ran a preschool.  Everyone loved him, and thought it was great to have a male in that field and his preschool had a long waiting list. 

I hope we continue to see more diversity in the workplace in every job! 

As a 40 something female Engineer I've spent my life working with men.

I have always wondered if "we" are conditioning kids with our pink and blue. Until I had my own kids that is.

We had DS first. So the house was filled with cars and trains, the usual boy things. DD came along but we didn't really get any toys for her. She was quite happy playing with DS cars... Or at least we thought. But one day when she was just crawling we went to a play group. Where she made a beeline for the dolls corner. She picked them up cuddled them, nursed them fed, them. At 8 months old she showed that there is a huge biological element to our choices in profession.

DD is now 4 and a real pink girly girl.....I really don't understand where she gets it from..... Because I would not be seen dead in pink or glitter.

Professions that women were relegated to and limited to are still dominated by women. Men look at history and see these are women's professions. Women still do not always see themselves doing jobs/having careers that will interfere with having a family or one they will stay in after the marry and have kids. Men are not socialized to approach careers as something until they have a family.

You do not often see any male teachers at the Elementary School level unless they are the PE teacher. Of course it is likely the principal or vice principal will be male. Elementary school teachers are generalists and middle and high school teachers specialize in a certain subject. An elementary school teacher will say what grade they teach while the middle and high will say what subject.  In fact, teachers and nurses had to be single originally.  They could not work after they got married.  Beyond 8th grade was not compulsory - it was more prestigious so of course men taught at those 'advanced' levels.  Who does the home schooling now?  Women.

Social workers are predominately female but psychologists are predominately male. Social work pay is very low in comparison to a psychologist.

Typically, if you look any traditional female dominated career you will find a man at the top. Social workers are women, but heads of social service agencies are male. Nurses are women, but the hospital administrator will be male. Teachers are women, but it is likely the principal will be male. Paralegals are women but the attorneys will likely be male. Secretaries are women typically working for men. In the military ad politics look at the highest echelons and you will find women working for men.

Women rarely realize how socialized they are to a subservient role. When you see an infant in a bathing suit at the pool, does she have on a suit that covers her non existent breasts? Because from birth she is taught to cover those up. But then we wonder why many people have a problem with having them exposed for breast feeding. So we put little girls in dresses and tell them how pretty they are and what a princess (and do princesses have jobs?) and then tell them to keep their dress down if they pull it up? And never let a boy see your panties, except I have a dress on so now I have to limit how I sit and what activities I do. Do we put them in cute little strap shoes instead of the sturdier shoes that their male counterparts are wearing?

Women are equal but we do not believe it, we do not hold ourselves to the standard of equal, and we hang on to all the aspects of womenhood that in history have made us feel special and important, like beauty, curves, heels, showing off our bodies (yes, wearing a dress is designed to show off a woman's body)m using our sexual selves to feel good about ourselves and entice and keep a mate( and then again, wondering why the fuss about breast feeding.)

We go into business but we open craft shops and dress shops, cleaning services and cupcakeries, but the big names in cooking and restaurants are men. How many chefs can people name right off their head and how many are women. How many hotel managers are men but the room cleaners are women?

On this issue there is much to be said and much work to be done, but my answer is ALWAYS... Follow the money. If you want to know why women dominate certain fields and men dominate others, follow them money.

It's so interesting to see what toys the kids enjoy!

We have 3 girls, so we had mostly girl toys.  When we had our friends over that have three boys, they were so entertained with all of the girl toys.  They played with the kitchen, dollhouse, etc. as they don't have those toys at home.  The parents were amazed at how much they love the girl toys and are so well behaved at our house. 

My poor nephew has an older sister, so lots of girl toys in the house.  He preferred the girls toys because that is what he was used to.  Well, when he was 2, my brother got him a train set for Christmas. My brother was so happy because he loved playing with trains as a kid.  Well, my nephew had no interest in the trains because he wanted to play Disney princess with his sister and 3 female cousins! 

My girls are not into babysitting and nurturing type activities (except with pets, they love to walk dogs and play with dogs).  They are older now, and my two teen girls are more into the sciences.  I really hope my oldest, 18, a college freshman, considers biomedical engineering.  Her school is really pushing engineering for the girls. 

maryland thank you. It has been easier as I have gained the respect of most of the men I work with but it always pisses me off that if a new man arrives, he is automatically given the same respect that I have to earn. I am at the point of my career that I am thinking about retiring but it has been a journey for sure. I hope that some day these choices are a given, not something that has to be demanded and fought for.

@jrussel thank you as well. Like another poster said, I followed the money. I wanted to make the most money I could in the least amount of time. I never wanted to depend on someone else to support me. It's a good thing I did too because I found myself at 45 divorced and supporting myself. As difficult as that was, I can't imagine how much harder it would have been, had I not be able to pay my bills.

I love your post!  We wanted to raise our girls to enjoy all different activities, toys, etc. and wanted them to be well rounded.  They are pre-teens/teens and they much prefer outdoor chores to indoor chores.  So the girls and I all argue over who gets to mow, we all want to mow.  Same with shoveling the snow.  My husband chooses and plants the flowers.  So we all enjoy different activities and we could care less if they are stereotypical male or female.

Your sons sound like they will make great husbands someday and I hope I raised my girls to make wonderful wives (if that's what they chose)!