Interestingly the profession was first created so that all the (largely male) population of people that received medical training in the US military could work at the VA and similar places once they’d left the service. So its sort of an interesting example in that the gender balance has flipped, unlike most of the earlier examples where a lot of the gender bias seems to be due to inertia from when woman had very limted employment opportunities.
My impression for the reason is that PA’s tend to be woman who wanted to work as doctors but were worried that between the long period of schooling and training, they wouldn’t be able to balance it with having children.
You’ll note that often, whether it’s secretary, dental hygienist, paralegal or nurse, we’re talking about a professional’s assistant. Men would often rather be the professional than the assistant* because professional status, job security and income is more important to men than women, on average. Once you get an occupation associated with women, it’s difficult to get more men interested in it.
*And if they can’t, they’re more likely to decide to go into something else entirely.
Labs techs are overwhelmingly female, IME. I see fewer male lab techs (percentage wise) than male nurses…by a pretty decent margin, too. And I work in over two dozen different hospitals, in labs, ORs, ICU’s, etc… and it’s the same everywhere.
For that matter, Sterile Reprocessing/CSR/whatever that hospital calls it are also mostly women.
Interestingly in the UK, real estate is a very ‘male’ profession - estate agents are seen as money hungry wide boys desperate to ‘close the deal’, not stereotypically ‘womanly’ traits.
I’m in graphic design and, despite being 50:50 gender split at college level, I’ve found that by the time people work professionally, a good chunk of the women designers disappear. I’ve worked in large studios (30+ people) where I was the only female designer. I have no idea where the women go.
And in lots of places the public transport announcers are female (busses in Rotterdam, the London Underground, Schiphol Airport, Rio de Janeiro Metro, Rome Metro etc. Pretty much anywhere I can think of.
I’ve worked in two fields that appear to be majority female - librarians & counselors. I have also noticed, in my experience, anyway, that any males in these profession are quick to be promoted & have thought one fast track to success for men is to enter a field that is predominately occupied by women.
I work in a very female-heavy profession - I’m a librarian, we have, let me think, three guybrarians in this very large building - but the female dominance at the library is completely dwarfed by the female dominance at the… zoo.
Seriously, since I’ve been volunteering at the zoo the only males I’ve seen there have been divers and groundskeepers and some of the guest services volunteers. Every single zookeeper I’ve met is a young woman, and every animal care volunteer. It’s an incredibly physically demanding job, exactly the sort of thing you’d expect to be male dominated - it’s dirty and sweaty and outdoors and full of heavy lifting, except it’s also very low paying, particularly considering the level of education required, and it deals with animals which I suppose is a “girl thing”.
I assume they’re all young because after a certain point holy crap how are you supposed to support a family on that pay?
Veterinary medicine is becoming predominately female. In my graduating class of 60, only 10 were guys.
Just by scanning this thread, it appears as though a lot of professions that you used to be predominately male have become predominately female. I can’t think of any traditionally female occupation that has been infiltrated by men to the same extent. This leads me to wonder: what are the guys doing that they weren’t before?
Daycare centers seem to be staffed completely by females.
Even schools seem to be female teachers below a certain grade level. I think my first male teacher was 4th grade. I have never met a male kindergarten teacher.