Throughout history, women have slowly pushed their way into every job field, but some professions have been slower than others to accept them. Who decided that, still in today’s day and age, women were not capable of doing “manly” jobs that require physical labor? While we have grown to a place where some women now hold positions of power in major corporations, government and other high-ranking professions, it is clear that there are still areas where women struggle to be accepted — fields such as construction, search-and-rescue and other occupations that require physical labor.
Ski patrolling was once a field dominated by men, but there has been a recent surge in women acquiring these positions. Although many have faced sexism in this particular field — even being deemed less trustworthy by injured skiers in their ability to safely assist them — the rise in women in ski patrols is an indication that this field is catching up with the times. It also shows that issues of equality in once male-dominated fields are finally being challenged.
The surge of women in ski patrols is proving that even though women are often perceived as weaker than men, they are just as capable of holding physically-challenging jobs. While women in ski patrols now account for 23% of the more than 31,000 patrollers nationwide, in 2007 they only accounted for 19%, according to membership surveys and registration with the National Ski Patrol, as mentioned in the New York Times. This rise in women in ski patrols — small as it may seem — proves that women are beginning to gain traction in once male-dominated fields.
Greater representation in jobs such as these will give hope to a new generation of girls who have doubted their dreams because they only seemed attainable for men. As the number of women in these types of physical labor fields increases, you can no longer tell little girls that they will be too weak to succeed in any given field. These women ski patrollers are proving that notion to be false — as are the women who break into fields such as construction and firefighting.
The slow rise of women in once male-dominated fields is proving just how capable women truly are — advancing the feminist movement and the push for gender equality in the work place. There was once a time when a woman could not dream of entering a field dominated by physical labor, but those days are behind us. Women can truly become whatever they aim to be in today’s society, as they increasingly leave the bunny slope for the more rigorous slopes.
