Women entered and stayed in the workforce regardless of family status in large numbers in the 1970s. Women penetrated most male preserves in blue collar (factory) and white collar environments (law). But some industries remain remarkably segregated by gender. The construction trades remain mostly male as does investment banking. These are both high-paid careers.
Social work, preschool teachers, nurses remain mostly female. One might have predicted that the decades would have resulted in a greater mix.
My own work in employment and civil rights law in the past quarter century has shown me that patterns of discrimination vary by industry and by company. But why? How does gender group behavior, by guys or gals, differ in different companies, industries or career tracks?
We need better work from sociologists and cultural anthropologists to explain patterns of gender in the workplace.
This article from the New York Times, is about how nursing is posed to become less female-dominated. Source: NY Times, Forget about the stigma, by Claire Cain Miller and Ruth Fremson, 1/4/18.