When exploring career options, don't limit your career
choices just because you think the job you want is meant for a person
of a specific gender. One option many people overlook in their job search
is nontraditional employment. Nontraditional careers are careers where
75 percent or more of the workers are the opposite gender.
Why Nontraditional?
- Both traditionally male and female occupations areas are in need
of highly skilled workers. Increasingly, gender does not matter if
the person has the required skills for that occupation.
- For women, the need for better wages is imperative given the high
poverty rate (37.4% in year 2000) for female-headed households with
children under the age of eighteen.
- Women in nontraditional occupations, such as construction trades,
engineering, and architecture, for example, usually earn 20 to 30
percent more than in traditionally held "female" occupations.
- Many men who in the past were discouraged from entering jobs predominately
held by women are finding greater job satisfaction and new opportunities
in areas such as social work, child care, nursing, and education.
Nontraditional jobs for women are any that we most often see men doing,
for example, carpenter, auto technician, welder, heavy equipment operator,
laborer, plumber, mechanic, cable installer, and truck driver. Many
women have the innate skills and abilities for what are typically considered
"male occupations" and enjoy using these skills in variety
of ways. Click here on the INTEREST
SURVEY to see if your interests and skills might work for you in
a nontraditional career.
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