There has always been a general concept that jobs should be identified by gender. There are certain professions that only men are allowed to practice and certain professions that should only be practiced by women. The roles had been ‘’clear’’ for a very long time and they are known as blue/pink roles in the workplace.
However, over the past few years and through focused efforts we now see that many women are found working in positions designated for men and vice versa. There was a time during which women would not even think about taking being a part of the political scene of a country. At the same, there was no way that a man could work as a nurse of a kindergarten teacher.
Professions have seen a great deal of evolution over the past few years and it is completely understandable. After all the world is constantly changing. However, there are still certain steps that need to be taken in order to stop seeing professions as primarily male or female-oriented but deal with them as ‘’gender neutral’’ not blue/pink.
Identifying those professions is the first step to understand the current situation all around Europe. It is important to know exactly how countries view this shift if they are working with it and what needs to be done in order to make sure that there is no separation between the different professions anymore.
The terms blue/pink workers are a great way to help identify the professions in question and at the same time a part of the problem. By using these kinds of terms we are simply feeding the discrimination. However, changing the term might seem more difficult than changing the situation itself.
The easiest way to deal with societal issues is to make sure that we are going to educate younger generations and teach them not to discriminate between men and women. European Projects like the MoveUp project have been focusing on creating training and educational material for this particular purpose.
That material shows the importance of equality in the workplace regarding both the ability to be occupied at the same positions whether you are a man or a woman as well as the behavior and recognition in the workplace, which should be the same for both genders.
For that to be achieved, young men and women need to understand that they can choose whichever profession they want and that they are not going to be judged by their gender. By developing soft skills and communication skills it will be a lot easier for people performing blue/pink professions to communicate their needs, preferences, thoughts and innovative ideas. That will make it possible for them to prove that gender does not identify a profession and that it is very important to focus on the results and not the gender of the person behind them.
