5 Industries Where Women are Underrepresented – If you are deciding on a degree or looking for a career change and think you might like to try something different, there are many jobs which are still seriously underrepresented by women that you may want to consider. If addressing this imbalance is something which you feel you wish to do, look through this list of jobs in which women are still a significant minority.
Medical
Although the majority of employees in healthcare are female, jobs in areas such as surgery and senior management are still dominated by men. This means that the gender pay gap is significant, with male-dominated positions generally receiving higher pay rises – the overall gender pay gap in the NHS in 2018 was 23%.
Sports & Fitness
Women are not only in the minority in sports roles, but women’s sports are often less respected, with prize money for women being less than men in 30% of sports. Women are also enormously underrepresented in administration roles, meaning this is not likely to change any time soon. Female athletes are encouraging more girls into sports, but generally there is a lack of positive representation for female sports. One way to change this, is for more women to be employed in the fitness industry. If this could be of interest to you, you should consider completing a personal trainer course. If you enrol with TRAINFITNESS, for example, you can choose from a number of personal training courses to fit your requirements, and they can be studied full time, part time, or as a distance learning course.
STEM
STEM is one of the worst industries when it comes to gender imbalance, with only 14.4% of the workforce being comprised of women. The biggest gaps are in computer sciences, engineering and technology. Much of this is down to stereotyping, which starts from an early age and is perpetuated by society. By giving girls more female role models in STEM, this could be an issue which is easily addressed.
Film Making
Not only are women more likely to be cast in stereotypical roles on the big screen, but they are also unlikely to be in charge of film production. In 2017, research by the British Film Institute showed that only 4.5% of UK films were directed by women, 34% of film crews were women and only 10% of senior crew members were women.
Firefighters
In the UK, only 7% of firefighters are women and only 6 of 54 chief officers are female. This imbalance is likely down to firefighting being a classically stereotyped role. Firefighting, along with other jobs such as law enforcement and construction are labelled as ‘men’s jobs’, with all toys in these categories aimed at boys. Looking at the way in which toys are marketed could go a long way to address this imbalance.
This is not by any means an exhaustive list, and women are generally underrepresented in most sectors when it comes to more senior or high paying positions. This is something that is now being recognised and some employers are starting to address this, so don’t be afraid to apply for a job because you believe it to be traditionally considered a role for males.
Poppy Watt