In the 1970s, social critic Louise Kapp Howe first introduced the term “pink-collar jobs” to describe the careers that society typically considers “women’s work”: jobs in industries like early childhood education, childcare, nursing, social work, housekeeping, beauty and more.
Most of these pink-collar jobs are in the service sector and typically require selflessness, empathy and willingness to give up your personal time in exchange for no additional compensation for the good of society.
As an elementary education major and the daughter of an elementary school teacher myself, I am all too familiar with the stigma surrounding pink-collar jobs.
These jobs that are dominated by women are important work, but work that is consistently undervalued and underpaid. Why is that?
I feel it is important to take a look at the history of pink-collar jobs, the compensation for these careers, the burnout associated with them and the ways the stigma surrounding pink-collar jobs hurts both men and women.
Where we go from here as a society to reduce the stigma surrounding this work that is key to society.
Many pink-collar fields are now facing shortages because women continue to enter male-dominated fields more than men are willing to enter female-dominated ones.
The stigma surrounding pink-collar work needs to be put to an end before we start to face nationwide shortages of many essential service-sector careers such as nursing, caregiving, education and childcare.
a brief history of pink collar jobs
All of the statistics listed below were gathered from International Women in Mining, a global not-for-profit organization pursuing gender equity in mining (a heavily male-dominated field).
As American men went to fight in World War II in the 1940s, about 5 million women entered the labor force to fill the jobs left behind by men. Since the 1940s, the percentage of women secretaries has stayed very consistent at about 93%.
For over 80 years, secretarial work has maintained its position as a pink-collar job clearly, there must be some sort of stigma surrounding this field for only 7% of its workforce to be men.
Other pink-collar careers include preschool and kindergarten teachers, dental hygienists and assistants, childcare workers, health technicians, medical assistants, dieticians/nutritionists, nurses and teacher assistants. All of these careers’ workforces are 90% or more female.
One interesting statistic is the difference between types of teachers. 70% of teachers are women, which is the majority of educators, but a staggering 99% of preschool and kindergarten teachers are women.
As students get older, the percentage of female teachers decreases. 81% of elementary and middle school teachers are women, 57% of secondary school teachers, and 47% of postsecondary teachers are women.
As the age of students (and pay) goes up, the percentage of women in these positions decreases. Preschool teachers are paid significantly less than postsecondary teachers.
The correlation between the amount of women in each of these positions and the compensation for said positions is hard to ignore.
Fields such as nurses, midwives, telephone operators, secretaries, domestic service workers and boarding housekeepers were dominated by women in the 1940s.
They were still considered pink-collar jobs in the 1970s when Howe coined the term. In 2024, all of these careers are still 90% or more made up of women. The stigma surrounding pink-collar jobs is not a new phenomenon.
payment
Caring work simply doesn’t pay. That’s a fact that every person who decides to go into caring work knows ahead of time. “It isn’t about the money,” they are told. “It’s about your impact on the world and people around you.” Clearly, they know this and value this intrinsic reward or they would be going into a field that pays enough to live comfortably.
However, why is it that some of the most necessary careers in our society pay so little? Why are the careers that require so much selflessness and are so emotionally exhausting the ones that pay next to nothing?
In their research article “The Cost of Caring,” Paula England and Nancy Folbre wrote that caring work involves providing face-to-face service in jobs such as child care, teaching, therapy and nursing.
They went on to say “Because caring labor is associated with women, cultural sexism militates against recognizing the value of the work. Also the intrinsic reward people receive from helping others may allow employers to fill the jobs for lower pay.”
Caring work creates public goods that benefit all of society. The training that nurses and teachers receive and the work they do can impact hundreds of people who go on to become productive members of society. Yet these careers are undervalued and underpaid.
As a student majoring in elementary and early childhood education and going into a pink-collar field myself, I have retained lots of information about the injustices in education.
The average starting salary of teachers in the U.S. is $42,845. In Pennsylvania, teachers are required to student teach in college (which requires working full-time for a minimum of one semester, completely unpaid and often at distant public schools), have a four-year undergraduate degree, pass state certification exams and become certified before being hired as a teacher.
Then teachers are required to get master’s degrees within their first several years of teaching. Once teachers are hired, they are required to put in many unpaid hours after school for grading and lesson planning.
They must purchase materials for their classroom and they are faced with disrespect from parents, administration, politicians and the general public.
In the New York Times article “Why Men Don’t the Want Jobs Mostly Done by Women,” one former welder who made railroad traction motors compared his former $18 per hour wage to the wage of a health aide (whose median wage is $10.50 an hour).
Both of these jobs are important and necessary, yet the wage gap is significant. While welding is a male-dominated career, health aides are majority women. Why else would the gap between the two fields, both of which require training, be so different?
burnout
Plenty of therapists and psychologists have discussed the increased rates of burnout for those who work in service-sector fields like nursing and education. Burnout is considered a state of complete mental, physical and emotional exhaustion that makes it incredibly difficult to engage in meaningful activities. It can lead to a sense of hopelessness and a lack of motivation.
Karen K. Weyandt wrote to the New York Times that “White men will not take on ‘pink collar’ jobs and erase the stigma as long as they are unwilling to do what minorities and women are willing to do, often lovingly and for minimal wages, at risk to themselves and their families. These workers are unacknowledged by our society for their humanity and heroism, changing diapers for our diseased, disabled and elderly loved ones and cleaning up after them.”
Pink-collar jobs are often selfless, time-consuming and thankless work. It is expected of women in our society to be motherly, gentle caretakers. These jobs seem “designed” for us.
However, why is selflessness and empathy not expected of men in our society? How is that fair to men or women?
Because pink collar jobs are dominated by women, they are dismissed as easy, making the stigma all the worse.
“Nurses aren’t as smart as doctors because they didn’t go to medical school, so they should be paid less.”
“Teachers get summers off anyway.”
“You’re just teaching a bunch of six-year-olds the ABCs.”
Teachers put four years of schooling into learning how to teach twenty or more kindergarteners with completely different ability levels and prior understanding of how to apply meaning to what is nothing but symbols for them so that they can read. Summers are unpaid and often used for planning for the next school year and purchasing supplies for the fall.
“Can I talk to a real doctor?”
Senior nurses with years of experience and training are still treated like they know less than brand-new residents.
“Changing diapers isn’t hard, I did it with my kids.”
People who change one diaper at a time for their own child insult those who change twenty at a time for minimum wage, yet rely on these services so they can go to work each day and know their children are safe.
“Taking care of kids should come naturally to you. Maternal instinct and all. It should be easy.”
This sentiment does not help someone who can’t shake the tension from hearing babies and toddlers scream all day long without ceasing.
“You’re a glorified assistant shuffling around papers on a desk and getting coffee.”
Secretarial work keeps businesses afloat — without many secretaries, offices would fall apart.
“You’re just a dental hygienist, not the dentist.” But who completes 90% of your cleaning and check-up each dentist appointment?
When fields are female-dominated, they are minimized and dismissed. This makes it even less likely for men to want to go into these fields, even for better job security than their current positions and increased wages over time.
When pink-collar workers give their all to service-oriented jobs every day and constantly have their efforts glossed over or trivialized, the burnout becomes even worse. Education, nursing and childcare are already high-stakes, stressful positions with many expectations and judgments placed on workers. The stress, emotional exhaustion and lack of personal time that workers are already feeling met with dismissal of their concerns from supervisors and the public can lead to horrible burnout.
these stereotypes hurt men and women
The stigma surrounding pink-collar jobs does not only hurt women. I would argue that it affects men equally.
Men in female-dominated fields such as nursing and education are demasculinized and disrespected. There is a societal expectation placed on men to earn enough money to support their entire family, and because the pay is so low in many of these pink-collar fields, this becomes impossible.
With the rise in automation, many male-dominated fields and blue-collar jobs such as factory work, mining and machine operation are unfortunately shrinking, leaving many men unemployed.
There are jobs available, but most of these jobs are in the service sector. They are pink-collar jobs. Because of this, many men would rather stay unemployed than do “women’s work” because of the stigma surrounding them.
Margarita Torre Fernández, a sociologist at the University Carlos III of Madrid, stated that “Some men would rather endure unemployment than accept a relatively high-paying women’s job and suffer the potential social stigma.”
According to the New York Times, “Of the fastest-growing jobs, many are various types of health aides, which are about 90 percent female. When men take these so-called pink-collar jobs, they have more job security and wage growth than in blue-collar work, according to recent research. But they are paid less and feel stigmatized.”
In addition to the fact that male-dominated fields are shrinking while female-dominated fields grow, there is also an unfairness toward men in the stigma surrounding pink-collar jobs.
Why is empathy a feminine trait? Why are men not allowed to be caring and serve others without being demasculinized? Caring about others should be masculine.
Male nurses and teachers are stigmatized and disrespected despite the fact that it is so important for young boys to see representation of themselves in these service-oriented fields. Schools, hospitals, and businesses are better when their workers come from diverse backgrounds.
This includes diverse racial, cultural, sexual, socioeconomic, and gender backgrounds. When workers have different perspectives, they bring more ideas to the whole company.
The New York Times article “Why Men Don’t the Want Jobs Mostly Done by Women” states, “Women have always entered male-dominated fields — usually well-paid, professional ones — more than men enter female-dominated ones. There are now many female lawyers, but male nurses are still rare. One reason is that jobs done by women, especially caregiving jobs, have always had lower pay and lower status. Yet when men, especially white men, enter female-dominated fields, they are paid more and promoted faster than women, a phenomenon known as the glass escalator.”
Joining female-dominated fields would benefit men on the whole, but the stigma is so strong that they refuse. How do we combat stereotypes that run so deep and have been around for so long?
where do we go from here?
As the rise of automation continues, male-dominated fields will continue to shrink while female-dominated careers in the service sector will continue to grow. Jobs in mining, transport, warehousing and manufacturing are at risk while the job security for careers in healthcare, hospitality, child care and education continues to improve.
As technology replaces certain careers revolving around machinery and technology, service sector careers like education and medicine will always require a real human connection.
It is essential that we reduce the stigma around these careers so that we can fill positions with both men and women. This will lower unemployment rates as well as reduce the impact of gender stereotypes.
We should consider being caring and selfless a human trait, not just a feminine one. Men can and should be raised to be caring, considerate and empathetic, especially if we want to continue to work to lower domestic violence rates and increase equality in the workforce.
We need to raise our sons in the same service-oriented mindset that we raise our daughters in while still establishing that everyone needs to set personal boundaries to combat burnout. We have far too many instances of daughters being parentified at a young age while sons are not taught to take care of themselves and a home. We have to find a balance and apply it equally.
We also need to raise the wages for these essential, service-oriented jobs. Factory work, manual labor and machine operation typically pay significantly more than jobs like health aides. Aside from the stereotypes and feelings wrapped up in transferring to a pink-collar job, men are not willing to take such a massive pay cut when there is still a societal expectation placed on them to support an entire family on their income alone.
Gender stereotypes hurt everyone, not just women, and it is our responsibility as a generation to put an end to them. As Claire Cain Miller, a journalist for the New York Times, wrote: “Improving the quality of pink-collar, working-class jobs has the potential to close gender gaps — and also to shrink the widening gaps between the highest and lowest earners, both women and men.”
The time to end the stigma surrounding pink collar jobs is now.