Why the New Jobs Report Matters for Boys and Girls at School
Last week, my daughter came home from school with a drawing of her “job of the future.” She had drawn herself as a veterinarian. I asked what her classmate Tommy wanted to be. She shrugged. “A nurse. But boys can’t be nurses, right?” I stopped folding laundry. “Why not?” She didn’t know. She said the book they read had a man as the doctor and a woman as the nurse.
That same week, a jobs report showed that between late March and late July, about 350,000 new jobs were added, and 94% of them went to women. A friend sent me a link with a headline about the impending end of American civilization. My daughter was still waiting for an answer about Tommy.
I don’t know what politicians are doing. A senator said the family structure was at risk. A commentator blamed schools. They all had strong opinions, and none of them were standing in my kitchen explaining to a 7-year-old whether boys are allowed to be nurses.
But the question was real. If 94% of new jobs in one stretch went to women, it doesn’t mean boys are doomed. It means the growing jobs—education, health care, child care—are fields where we still expect women to show up. That is not a civilization-ending crisis. It’s a classroom conversation.
I teach third grade, so I see this early. At the start of the year, I ask kids what they want to be. The boys pick police officer, firefighter, video game designer. The girls pick teacher, veterinarian, “mom.” There are exceptions, but the pattern is there. A boy who cannot imagine being a nurse has already crossed a whole part of the world off his list. A girl who cannot imagine being an electrician has done the same.
I used to say, “Anyone can do anything.” I stopped. It sounds good, but it doesn’t match what kids see. They see the adults around them and absorb who does what. A phrase is not enough. Instead, I point to real examples. “That woman is the school plumber. That man is the clinic nurse.” Kids need examples before they can hear the message.
At home, I’ve tried something different. Instead of avoiding gender, I name it quietly. When my son says, “You’re the mom, so you cook dinner,” I don’t lecture. I say, “Dads can cook too. Your dad made pancakes this morning.” Then we drop it. It doesn’t need to be a lesson. Just a fact.
In my classroom, I replaced the old occupational cards. The ones that show a doctor and a nurse from 1952. The new doctor is a Black woman, and the new nurse is a White man. It feels small, but small is how these beliefs change. Not through one assembly, but through a hundred tiny corrections in daily life.
The jobs report also made me think about something harder. Many growing “women’s” jobs, like health aide and child care worker, pay poorly. That is not good. If girls are doing those jobs because boys won’t take them, boys lose out on caring work, and girls lose out on wages. Caring for people should be seen as a skill, not an instinct women are supposed to have for free.
I don’t expect politicians to solve this. But at school, we can ask questions instead of assuming. During career units, I ask, “What would you need to learn to do that job? Who do you know who does it?” Their answers tell me what they already believe.
I also rotate classroom jobs. It is easy to ask boys to carry chairs and girls to straighten the bookshelf. Now nobody is assigned by gender. Chairs roll. The shelf gets fixed by whoever is closest. Before a kid can say “a boy can’t be a nurse,” they learn from a hundred small assignments who is expected to be strong and who is expected to be neat.
At parent-teacher conferences, I mention this without pushing. I might say, “Your son is very gentle with the younger kids. Does he help at home?” Sometimes parents smile. Sometimes they look confused. I leave the thought there.
My daughter eventually answered her own question. “Tommy’s dad drives a truck. I don’t know.” We looked up a real male nurse and read about why more men are needed in nursing. Then she went back to drawing animals. Tommy never knew a girl in his class spent ten minutes wondering if he was allowed to do a job he might not even want. That is how these rules get passed down.
I don’t know what the next jobs report will say. But my daughter now knows a male nurse exists, and my son knows dads can make pancakes. That is not civilization falling apart. It’s the opposite.
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