Do you remember this brainteaser?
A man and his son were in a car accident. The man died on the way to the hospital, but the boy was rushed into surgery. The surgeon said "I can't operate, that's my son!" How is this possible?
I remember being stumped by this when I was a kid - when today the answer is immediately obvious - the surgeon is the boy's mother! However, although we are now used to seeing women in medical school and serving as physicians, surgery is still a male dominated field. The American Board of Surgery reported in 2004 that women surgeons constituted only about 12% of the general surgery workforce.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a non-traditional occupation for women is one in which less than 25% of employed persons in that field is a woman. Thus surgery (although not medicine) is considered a non-traditional occupation for women.
A few other examples of non-traditional employment include engineers, detectives, architects, chefs, machinists, truck drivers, pilots, corporate CEOs, construction occupations, dentists, electricians, plumbers, physicists, auto technicians, computer programmers and computer systems administrators.
As the need for highly skilled people in both white collar and blue collar occupations increases, it becomes increasingly important to draw employees from the female gender, considering that women constitute half the population.
Trends also reflect this importance, as the growth of women into the workforce has exceeded that of men over the last 30 years. According to an article written by Mark Mather for Population Reference Bureau, from 1970 to 1990, the percentage of all women in the labor force increased 17% (from 43% to 60%), while the percentage of all men in the labor force decreased about 6% (from 80% to 74%). These percentages have stayed roughly the same since 1990.
We must create opportunities, and find ways to attract women to non-traditional fields, in order to tap into the great contributions that they can make. For example, 82-year old New Jerseyan Erna Hoover was recently inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for work she pioneered in the seventies for Bell Labs. Her 1971 patent for a computerized telephone switching system (one of the first patents ever issued for software) revolutionized telephone communication, and the principles behind her ideas are still used today. She completed some of her work while recuperating from the birth of her second child! As a result of her work she became the first female supervisor of a technical department at Bell Labs.
Do you know a woman who has a non-traditional career or occupation? (She doesn't have to hold a patent!) If so, I'd love to speak to her for a series of articles and book that I am writing about women working in non-traditional fields. Please call or email me so that we can begin the discussion.
Koval Associates LLC