You may have heard this riddle before:

A father and son have a car accident and are both badly hurt. They are both taken to separate hospitals. When the boy is taken in for an operation, the surgeon says "I can not do the surgery because this is my son." How is this possible?

Several years ago, researchers posed this riddle to 197 Boston University psychology students and 103 children, ages 7 to 17. In both groups, only a small minority of subjects—15 percent of the children and 14 percent of the BU students—came up with the correct answer: the surgeon was the boy’s mother.

Gender bias is to blame for people’s inability to correctly answer the riddle. Even in today’s workplaces, many people tend to think of some jobs as being “mostly for women” and other jobs being “mostly for men.”

contest 400

Win the chance to be part of our new campaign! Enter today.

A new campaign from WHRO Public Media hopes to counteract this message. For several years, WHRO has participated in American Graduate: Getting to Work, a nationwide initiative that highlights the many paths to career success in high-demand jobs that do not require a traditional four-year degree (and the debt that may accompany it). This month, WHRO launched “Work Like A Girl,” an effort to expose young women to opportunities found in skilled trade careers and to confront the stigmas that prevent females from exploring these roles.

Skilled trade careers—like those of welders, HVAC technicians, electricians and truck drivers—offer a wealth of opportunity for women. They tend to pay better than the “traditional” industries that many women pursue. In addition, skilled trades provide workers with skills they can use anywhere in the world--and even in economic downturns.

A CBS article reports “More than 36 million Americans lost their jobs since the pandemic began. Experts say women have born the brunt of job losses because the industries that were hardest hit are "hugely dominated by women": leisure and hospitality, retail, education and health services."

While industries like retail or hospitality may be influenced by the season or by regional economic stability, jobs for those working in skilled trades typically remain steady.

The "Work Like A Girl" campaign aims to educate both young women and their parents about these viable career oppportunities, many of which allow students to begin earning income quickly through short training programs and paid apprenticeships.

Learn more on WHRO’s American Graduate website.


Sources:
Boston University
CBSnews.com