"It captivates me. Nothing I had done before motivates me as much as the world of flowers, colors and aesthetics,” explains David Esmel Auxach (34), florist and decorator of ephemeral events, who remembers: “I was going for physical. A boy of numbers and astronomy who suddenly gets into decorating...
Together with his wife, they decided to continue with the family decoration business 'maitemach', which they have owned since 2013. “As our brand is named after my mother-in-law, when clients contact us for the first time, they often expect us to "Take care of her," says David. He also finds that in some emails they refer to or ask for 'the' florist in the feminine. “It's me!” He had to clarify. “I haven't cared much. When you love what you do, you don't even stop to think about these things,” he says.
Gil Gómez (37) always knew that teaching was his thing. “Since I was little, I liked to explain and share what I knew. Over time, I became aware that it was a job that could make me happy,” recalls the primary education teacher, specialized in Physical Education, who has been teaching for sixteen years and is currently a group tutor at the Cal Músic School. from Mollet del Vallés.
“Before this, I studied vehicle mechanics. But it was not one of my strong points and I did not see myself in that job for life,” explains Isaac Martínez, a 45-year-old social integrator, who at the age of 22 took a radical turn in his career. When he studied social integration, there were only three men in class out of thirty people. “As in everything social, although there are more and more men, the vast majority are girls. Traditionally, women have been responsible for caring for dependent people, both children and the elderly. “That is something that still drags on a lot,” he says.
This was never a problem for him. “I have always felt comfortable,” she says. Caring for other people is her vocation and she has been in “the social world” for more than twenty-three years. For fourteen years, she has offered support to people with physical or intellectual diversity at the Pere Mitjans Foundation, during the first five years in a day center and in the last nine in a sheltered apartment.
Gender roles and stereotypes not only shape the way most of us dress, behave and relate to each other. Also the jobs we do. What professions are still very feminized and why are few people choosing them?
According to the publication 'Women and men in Spain of the National Institute of Statistics' (INE), last updated in September of this year, in the Spanish labor market, in addition to having different working conditions depending on gender, there are a “concentration of men and women in different economic sectors and occupations.” While they occupy the majority of senior management positions and manual jobs, they occupy healthcare, education and retail trade.
The latest figures from the INE's Active Population Survey (EPA) show that, in the second quarter of 2023, 78.5% of workers in health and personal care services are women. Women also represent 98% of domestic employees, 67.3% of early childhood, primary, secondary and post-secondary education professionals, and they are more than 70% of health and public service professionals.
“The most feminized professions tend to be related above all to care, and it is something that women are instilled in from a young age and that we have more integrated,” says Sociology professor at the University of Murcia Ana Belén Fernández Casado. Occupational segregation by gender is one of her lines of research. For her, in addition to gender stereotypes, the feminization of certain occupations is explained by the training requirements and the possibilities for conciliation that each professional career offers.
As he indicates, “from a young age, we are instilled in what is about boys and girls through education, toys, stories, etc. This translates not only into professions but also into the type of tasks we perform.” we perform. For example, in the field of construction, more women than men are dedicated to doing detailed painting, because we are supposed to be more careful.”
The sociology professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Sandra López Fernández, points out that “they are professions that have been linked to women because they were part of domestic spaces and, in the last quarter of a century, we have externalized them.”
In the study 'Elderly Residences: a feminized sector where men increasingly rule', which she carried out together with two other researchers from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, they have observed that the most physical and direct work tasks , such as changing diapers, feeding, caring for wounds, postural changes, processing deaths, etc., are still carried out mainly by women. “They are feminized professions not because it is a sector that we have conquered, but because men do not want to occupy them. They are not kind tasks,” López Fernández explains to La Vanguardia.
According to the latest data from unions, the expert points out, the residences are 90% occupied by women, “but those 10% of men join to occupy positions of power and management. The men who are part of the staff are usually assigned tasks more related to skills traditionally associated with men, such as the use of force or conflict resolution,” she says.
López Fernández warns that this “is a trend that is deepening with the privatization of residential care. While almost 70% of public residences are directed by women, in the private or chartered private sector they are the ones who hold these positions. As soon as this domestic facet becomes part of the labor market, it responds to the same logic of the patriarchal system, where women only occupy 3% of management positions in large multinationals in Spain."
“The men who are part of these feminized sectors are actually doing jobs associated with what is traditionally masculine. In social-health centers, for example, they are those who maintain the building, security, those who are in the janitor's office and, the most qualified, they are those who do management work. They are in a position to manage and organize care, not to execute it,” says Professor Vicent Borràs Català, professor at the Department of Sociology at the UAB and researcher at the Center for Sociological Studies on Daily Life and Work-QUIT.
Furthermore, she agrees that “Women move towards the professions occupied by men because they are the most prestigious, with better salaries and better working conditions. The jobs that women have traditionally done have worse working conditions, worse prestige and lower salaries.”
“Caring for the elderly, children or people with dependency is something very necessary, but it is socially considered non-productive,” observes Isaac Martínez, who is dedicated to caring for people in a situation of dependency, and assures: “It is very poorly paid, which does not make it easy for people to want to work in this. Even if it is something vocational, it is difficult to survive with the little we earn.”
Furthermore, he explains, it represents a very high cost. “Today, for example, I have tremendous back pain. There is a lot of back, wrist, cervical and lumbar pain. You also take a lot of mental and emotional load home with you. There are very tense situations,” he indicates in dialogue with La Vanguardia.
“I understand that some families believe that one can aspire to be more than a school teacher, to reach much higher positions in other areas and with a higher salary. But the availability of free time, the fact that you like what you do and being able to enjoy good physical and mental health, are factors that must prevail in the search for the workplace,” says primary school teacher Gil Gómez.
For him, “teaching has always been identified with actions traditionally attributed to mothers, such as caring, accompanying, assisting, helping. A man had to dedicate himself to more physical or technical jobs. He was not compatible with the profession of teacher in primary school, although he was, to a greater extent, in secondary school, high school or university studies. Hence, the only male figure that existed until years ago in schools was the physical education specialist and the center director.”
Professor Ana Belén Fernández Casado explains that, in education, there tend to be more women teachers in the first levels, early childhood and primary education, except in the areas of physical education and music, where there is more parity. In secondary school, teaching is more equal, although men usually teach subjects related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics, while those in the humanities are more feminized. “When men join these branches, it is usually to occupy positions of power,” she says.
But the feminization of certain professions is not explained only by the conditions they offer. In the investigation "The incorporation of men into paid care work: Opportunities and risks", the UAB researcher Vicent Borràs and his team put the magnifying glass on "a sector where men have represented a practically immovable minority, which is the care of children from zero to three years old".
It is difficult to find a male teacher or assistant in a daycare. According to Borràs, of the 103 municipal bressol schools in Barcelona, which represent a volume of more than a thousand employees, there are only fourteen. “This has not changed for almost thirty years. It's a good job, qualified and with good vacations. But men don't come in,” he says.
The expert points out that, among other things, this is explained by the fact that “there is a certain social reluctance or taboo for men to care for and change diapers for children from zero to three years old. Many of them perceive this feeling of rejection or distrust and it is something that sets them back or generates a certain modesty."
From the interviews carried out with professionals, they also observed that “they themselves, when explaining their work, filled it with other content. 'I organize, coordinate or do recreational activities', they said, as if fleeing from the word care, as if it were more difficult for them to take on those tasks that have to do with accompaniment to satisfy daily needs, such as changing diapers, bathing or giving food. ”explains Borràs.
Borrás assures that “In everything that has to do with care in the first phase and in the last phase of life, men disappear. "It's a pretty difficult wall to get through." In cases where they manage to do so, the benefits are notable. “Men who do this type of work go through a very important process of personal growth. They say their life has changed a lot. They have had to deconstruct their own masculinity. Working with women and with care makes them aware of certain things and collaborate more at home,” he says.
For daycare parents, finding men caring for their children is also a positive thing. “Parents interact more, ask more and get more involved because they have a male reference, a similar other with whom to talk and share,” indicates the UAB professor.
“We are focusing on STEM careers, so that girls have references and can begin to make visible the possibility of being engineers or scientists. But I think it is also important that men can join feminized professions, which in most cases are vocational and have to do with care, with emotions, which is something that is usually instilled more in us," she says. for her part, the professor at the University of Murcia Ana Belén Fernández Casado.
What should change so that the presence of men in these professions is no longer an exception? Teacher Gil Gómez is clear: “Break gender stereotypes. “Understand and teach our students that they must choose and be from freedom.”
In her school, every November 25, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, they carry out activities to raise awareness “not only about sexist violence, but also about the possibility of being free when choosing color of a t-shirt or being able to jump rope without being the victim of discriminatory comments. We focus on actions and situations of everyday life,” she indicates.
For the teacher, “the change is already occurring. The school and the families want to overcome this challenge so that our students, when choosing a study or a job, do not value it according to the percentage of women or men there are, but according to whether they are passionate about it and if they believe that It will allow them to be happy.”
“I don't believe in balancing the scales and forcing situations just because, but rather in everyone being able to work with what they want. I firmly believe that this is how it is today,” says florist and decorator David Esmel Auxach. For Isaac Martínez, social integrator, “it is important that everyone can do what they like, study and dedicate themselves to what they want and what they are good at. Whether in principle it is more masculine or feminine it doesn't matter. It is something that is already changing a lot and that starts from home.”
“Parents cook at home, clean, shop, pick up the children from school. A man is not socially penalized for doing 'women's things'. It is something that is already quite normalized,” says professor Ana Belén Fernández Casado, although she clarifies that the way in which we are educated and socialized based on our gender still influences when choosing what we want to dedicate ourselves to. “Both men and women feel more comfortable with these learned stereotypes. We still have a way to go,” she says.
