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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Frankenstein Underworld" data-source="post: 445496" data-attributes="member: 35">As I said before, gender bias and discrimination still exist to some degree.  However, that doesn't mean it's the main reason so many jobs are undervalued, including many of the jobs that are male dominated.   I mean, it's not like society looks highly on trash collectors or janitors either. That's where classism comes into play.  In regard to the "wage gap," the choices people make in terms of education, careers, and their personal lives also play a role.Much of that comes down to the different strengths, abilities, and aspirations men and women have (which I previously touched on.)  For example, mothers in particular are more likely to reduce their hours or take time off to handle child care.  This shouldn't be their sole responsibility, of course, but society has long considered women to be more nurturing by nature (although that's clearly not always the case.)It's also why some people still have the misguided belief that there'd be "no wars" if women ran the world (despite the evidence to the contrary.)  Obama even said recently that things would "be better" if women ran the government, despite the fact that he chose a male VP and ran against Hillary Clinton in 2008.  And when he chose Clinton for Secretary of State, she proved to be a huge war monger in her own right.  Go figure.As far as teaching in particular goes, men also leave the teaching profession at a higher rate than women due to lower average wages than the corporate sector.  Thus, they are often promoted quicker as a retention strategy.  I certainly don't think that's fair, and I think a better solution would be to pay all teachers a fair wage, but this promotion strategy isn't representative of the classist job structure as a whole.  As far as secondary schools in the US are concerned, men make up about 40% of the workforce.  However, they're also more likely to get their start in secondary schools.  As a result of this, they're often first in line for a promotion to executive headship positions.  Men are also more likely to seek out school administration positions, while women are more likely to favor classroom instructor positions.</blockquote>

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