Women are less competent than men?!?

"Being a woman in a male-dominated industry, you are so afraid of people thinking you are weak."-Erin Andrews

In my opinion, the problem most urgent to fix in Germany is male dominated industries.

The first example that supports my opinion is the gender pay gap which shows the difference in payment between women and men working the same job. In 2023 women earned 18% less than men. Women often work different jobs than men with 83.6% of women working in education, social work and in housekeeping. Construction is a good example for an industry that is clearly male dominated with 89% of male workers. This is not good because a lot of women might be really good with construction and a lot of men would be great in education. There are only a few jobs with a relatively equal amount of men and women workers. One of them is design, art and crafts.

48% of women between the age 20 to 54 work part time, often to get paid at least some money and to be able to take care of their kids. This is a problem that should definitely change with more men taking care of their kids and working half time. This way, the women would get better career chances and their earnings would increase.

Another problem that women face are higher entry barriers. One example is that a manager for construction is more likely to hire a man than a woman just because he thinks that men are better for technical jobs. Women are often seen as less competent. They are roughly four times as likely to be told that than men. 23% of women get told that but only 6% of men.

Male dominated industries go hand in hand with stereotypes and expectations.

Some argue that stereotypes and expectations are the cause for gender inequality in Germany because career choices are influenced early on and women are expected to prioritize family etc. I think that stereotypes play a role but they are not the biggest barriers to gender equality. Even women who ignore stereotypes have problems when looking for jobs due to a lower pay etc. More women in industries would help with having more different people to solve a problem and to create new things for everybody and not only for 50% of the population. It does not make sense that men invent things for women.

Fixing the gender pay gap and giving me and women equal career chances is done much faster than waiting for stereotypes to change.

This is why I think that the problem of male dominated industries is most urgent to fix!