Reply to Do people really view certain jobs as beneath them?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I actually think this is one of the roots of subtle sexism and discrimination at work. Women are raised to think that "no job is beneath me", it's part of having empathy for everyone around us, and we tend to be willing to chip in with whatever needs to be done.  Men are raised to think that they are above certain types of work, and they only aim for or do those jobs that are worthy of them.

At my office, most of the technical and management staff are men.  All of the administrative staff are women.  I'm among the technical/management, but am female.  It's amazing how often we have a situation such as: we're all in a conference room, and the coffee pot is empty.  The men keep getting up, trying it, realizing it is (still) empty, and going back to their chair.  I, wanting a cup a coffee, pick it up to take to kitchen for a refill.  My boss, also in the room, says "oh Larla, you don't need to do that, I'll get Larletta (his admin)".  I'm like, why would you call Larletta?  She's on the other side of the building, we are right here!  But in his mind, getting coffee is an admin's job.  In my mind, it's the job of whoever wants coffee.

But guess what - next time the coffee needed refilling, everyone in the room assumed I would do it.  That's fine, except I realized it meant they had mentally moved me "down" a level from peer/manager to admin.  [/quote]

I think it's also nice that he said that - from the perspective of not pegging the woman as the coffee-getter (and sad that this is a "nice" move).  A better move would be for HIM to have made it.[/quote]

PP again. My boss was absolutely not one of the sexist ones. He made a point to never assign "women's work" to me, which I appreciate.

What I really noticed, though, is that women are more likely to step in and do work that is "beneath them", whether it's a woman's task or not. That gives us a reputation as being willing to do lower-level work - and usually doing a good job at it - where the men are always angling for higher-level work. Obviously these are generalities, and don't apply to everyone, but I think it's at least a factor in why men are more likely to end up with higher level assignments and eventually promotions.[/quote]

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