Why we need to think beyond gender specific profession?

We all have brains to think, heart to feel, eyes to see, hands to touch. Why then, do we think traditionally when it comes to making career choices? Why do we give in to societal pressure? 

When we choose a profession that we are passionate about the level of commitment is high, rather than joining one that is forced upon us. We can see people who select careers of their choice, rather than being told what to do have proven to be more successful. Their stories also inspire the young minds who want to choose beyond the specified choices.

Some are also lucky in choosing from normal and have been encouraged by their family and teachers.  Nergis Mavalvala, a female astrophysicist of Pakistani origin, who has become the Dean of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science, USA, is a case in point. Her success came because from the very beginning she choose to study astrophysics and her family supported her choice. Commenting on gender specific roles, she said, "Anybody should be able to do those things. And I am proof of that because I am all of those things. With the right combination of opportunity, it was possible for me to do." (Jun, 2012)

Introducing some changes in the way of doing a task also encourages people to choose a different profession. If we look at the Taxi industry, we can see such examples. Although since the beginning of 2000, some societies started accepting the idea of female cab drivers, we can now see that there has been a significant increase in the numbers of female taxi drivers.  In Pakistan, the female taxi service by the name of Paxi was launched in 2017. (Park, 2018)

Both the passengers and drivers are female.

For many years the IT industry was seen as male oriented but females are making their way slowly and steadily in it. Today in Pakistan, a major boost is seen in the number of females who have entered the fields of coding and software development.  A lot of young girls are joining this field to enter the future work force.

Another such example is of online or virtual entrepreneurs. Girls have started their own online business or joined this industry as free-lance, this trend is currently booming in Pakistan. The current situation due to COVID -19 has added to a high increase in this mode of business.  People who were not very comfortable buying things online were forced to shop online due to the pandemic. This led to a change in their mindset regarding online shopping and they began to find it quite convenient. Female Pakistani entrepreneurs have overcome a lot of hurdles and are excelling in their business.

An online business which helps women to sell their products is ‘Sheops” a marketplace founded by Nasia Patel Gangjee. According to her, ‘Sheops’ is a marketplace for women, that helps women monetize their talents, such as cooking, baking, and making some handicraft. They started off with a group of five women and now are a community of over 26,000 and growing daily. (Quint, 2016)

It’s just not the females who are breaking the mold by choosing different careers but we can also see males have also entered female domains. For instance, while cooking was a job where male chefs excelled, cooking shows were considered only as female domain. The change in this trend is evident from one of the most popular Pakistani cooking You Tube channel, Food Fusion is run by Asad Memon and his wife Saima Asad. Asad once worked in one of the largest digital media agencies of the country, and quit everything to start the venture. (Ayaz, 2019)

Similar cases can be cited for Beauty Salons run by men in Pakistan. Even now in some societies this role is only dedicated for females and men are discouraged to take up this role.

If an individual is good at something that the society finds difficult to accept, because of gender specific bias, then it’s society loss not the individual’s. When equal opportunity for growth is provided the nation not only progresses but also become adapts rapidly to changes which are happening in the world.

It is perfectly fine to choose a non- conventional profession for which we are passionate and have interest in, instead of giving in to the gender specific roles which are widely accepted by the society. This is specially true if we want to progress as a nation then we have to think beyond gender specific professions.