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Insights – Learning from Failure, Innovation and Workplace Culture
Course 2: Are there professions for each gender? | Mujeres Sin Filtro Fuckup Nights
What is the role that women tend to play in the workplace? Why is there such a visible gender division of professions?
By:
Mujeres Sin Filtro
Transcript
Welcome to your “Professions and Gender” course from Mujeres Sin Filtro.
Together with my colleagues from Fuckup Nights be answering questions such as: What role do women typically play in the workplace? Why is there such a visible gender divide in professions? What happens when a woman enters “men’s” jobs (so to speak)?
Let's start with the opening question: Do you think there are professions specific to each gender?
You might say no. It’s not as if we were still living in the Stone Age to believe that women can’t pursue the careers they want. In fact, if we look at the figures, there has been a 9% increase in women’s participation in the labor market in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1990.
Given the cultural shift that has taken place in our society, it would be fair to say that there are definitely no professions reserved for a particular gender. And that both women and men can pursue whatever career they choose.
But… have you ever stopped to think about the female-dominated professions and industries that still exist today?
Cooking, doing laundry, taking care of the family’s health and nutrition, helping children with their homework, maintaining the home, and handling all activities related to family life are tasks that have historically been assigned to women. Without any pay, of course.
Perhaps in theory, women and men are equal, but there are still jobs that only women take on.
If we were paid for every dish we have to wash at home, for every meal we cook, or for every time we leave work to care for a sick child, women would be earning an average of $67,992 Mexican pesos per year. That’s the equivalent of $5,660 pesos per month. We calculated these figures using the economic value simulator for domestic and care work created by INEGI, México National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
This is the cost of working double shifts in México, and our toolkit will help you calculate how much you should be paid for the hours you spend on caregiving tasks.
What are gender roles? How do they affect this issue?
Gender roles are the sets of social norms and behaviors that we assign to people based on the sex assigned to them at birth. They represent what we understand as feminine or masculine.
When discussing women who start businesses or enter the workforce while raising a family, we often hear statements like: “Women are very emotional,” “Working women aren’t good mothers,” “Because women are tender-hearted, they lack what it takes to make firm decisions or be bosses.”
But… I think it takes a lot of strength of character and leadership to look after the physical and emotional well-being of an entire family, don't you think?
Gender roles have no biological or scientific basis and have changed over time. Society constantly sends us messages about the activities that “boys and girls should do.”
We give girls dolls, play kitchens, cleaning sets, and baby dolls to play with. Meanwhile, boys are given cars, doctor, firefighter, and police toys. This continues to reinforce the idea that men are supposed to do certain activities and women others. And it directly affects the way we develop professionally. If you don’t believe us, check out these figures:
● According to the UN, only 22 women worldwide are heads of state or heads of government.
● In Latin America and the Caribbean, the labor force participation rate for women is 25% lower than that for men, according to a 2018 report by the International Labor Organization.
● According to 2022 data from the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, 47% of women in México have children are not employed.
These figures show that the path for women to enter the workforce is fraught with obstacles. And even if we do manage to enter the workforce, we are less likely to reach leadership positions.
But let's not get discouraged; there are promising initiatives and women who are fighting every day to change this situation.
Here are a few organizations we’d like to introduce you to so you can get to know them, and so we can start developing tools to help create a more equitable world for women.
"Finance for All" is an initiative launched by UN Women to promote financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs in Latin America. This is critically important, given that 3 out of every 10 women in México do not have their own income. Having tools that help us achieve financial well-being is a step toward equality.
#TodasConectadas is a project of the Regional Alliance for the Digitalization of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, designed to help women access more and better opportunities in the digital economy. You’ll find UNESCO-certified courses with a gender perspective that provide the tools you need to run your business.
Fondo Semillas is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women in México they can make their own decisions. By promoting and raising awareness about issues on the feminist agenda, it offers programs focused on various areas, including reproductive health and justice, addressing physical and sexual violence, labor rights for domestic workers, and combating discrimination against transgender women and people of diverse gender identities.
If you'd like to learn more, you'll find information about all the organizations in the text accompanying this video.
At Mujeres Sin Filtro a companion section to this video called the Toolkit, where we provide resources you can use today. These tools are designed to transform the reality of the double workday. Making the unpaid work we do more visible can help us have these conversations in our personal lives and provide us with the resources we need to take action—whether that means time and/or money.
Tool 1: Track, organize, and allocate work hours.
Using a timer or an app, such as TimeSheet or WorkingHours, you can track the hours you spend on household chores. It’s important to have an idea of how much extra work you’re doing compared to other members of your family.
Together with your family members or the people who live in your home, make a list of all the household chores. It’s important to be specific about all the tasks that need to be done to ensure the home is a safe space for everyone.
Once you've made a list of the chores and tallied up the hours, talk to your family members and divide them up. Write down on a calendar when each chore will be done and who will do it.
Tool 2: Do the math
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography created the Unpaid Work Simulator, a tool designed to calculate the monetary value in pesos of the time each of us spends on household chores. You’ll find the link in the toolbox so you can calculate your own.
If the division of caregiving responsibilities in your household is unequal, you can also compensate for those hours of work financially.
Mujeres Sin Filtro an initiative created in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank to build community and provide knowledge and tools to women entrepreneurs. We invite you to check out the toolkit and the accompanying article.
Thank you for your time, and we look forward to seeing you in the next course.
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