As automation and artificial intelligence rapidly reshape the nature of work, caring professions, which require warmth, empathy and human interaction, are among the fastest growing and most future-proof jobs. Yet women predominantly occupy these professions, driven by the gendered stereotype beliefs that care work is “women’s work,” and that women are naturally “warm” and better suited for caring occupations, and that men are more “competent,” and thus more inclined to competition.
Caring jobs are, as a result, undervalued, seen as less challenging or requiring less skill as jobs in sectors dominated by men, and underpaid. Understanding better what caring jobs truly entail and what could attract and retain men to these fast-growing caring professions could be critical for the future economy, worker and family health, wellbeing and stability, as well as for helping to drive the transformation of these undervalued jobs into decent, dignified and respected work for people of all genders.