Your career.... Would it have been different if you were born female?

Like many others, it is a mixed bag... i am a scientist and army combat vet (13 yrs in national guard, with a tour in Afghanistan)...

Given my love of science, I am sure that I would have still pursued that career, but I suspect that the road would have been much more fraught than it was as a man (there is still a fair amount of discrimination and harassment of women in the hard sciences). As for the army, I am sure that I would have still joined, as I did it out of patriotism (in q995) rather than a financial need (I hope this does not come out the wrong way....if you raised your hand and took the oath, you are deserving of praise... reason behind it does not matter)...but same...the journey would have been much more fraught given the high number of serial abuse/assault within the military....

So, I do not think the end results would have been dramatically different, but tge journey would have DEFINITELY more difficult

Hi Caty for me I worked as a chef for the first half of my working life, I now work in the fashion industry, if I was born as a women I would of lent towards flight attendant, I was always fascinated about the way the dressed in the 70's and wanted to be one, if only we could reshape our past

I am pretty sure my employment direction would have been a lot different if I had been born as female.  My mother was a lifelong waitress, starting that when she was 16 and an unwed mother with my older sis in 1956 (The scandal just left her mom scandalized, omg. LOL.)  She stuck with it though and was Lead Hostess at a couple of the more upscale restaurants here.  That rubbed off on me and I have worked at different aspects of the culinary career, so I know I could have done pretty well in that direction.  I've really never thought about what other kind of career I would have had.  Judging by some of my male jobs, I did enjoy retail work a lot, and worked sales in the furniture world for a couple of years.

I have many and varied experiences in the working world and the time of college age, I was not even close to college material, except for the partying part of it, lol.  I have done okay with my different jobs and am fairly comfy financially, not rolling in dough, but able to attain whatever I feel I need.

PaulaF

Like others on here, I would probably have entered the caring professios - hell, I did enter the caring professions - I would just have done so much earlier.

Then again, as arthritis runs in my family and this has devastated the females in my immediate family, it would probably have got me as well.

My aspirations would have been much different. Its perhaps a given that girls try harder at school. This would probably still have lead me to the caring professions but as a nurse. I would then have progressed to management and then probably to lecturing / education which is my current aspiration.

Then again, as I would probably have gained my education much earlier, this may have lead me towards a career in medicine - so still in the caring professions, same as now only different.

I would almost certainly have become wife and mother. Who knows if that would have turned out well given that a sizable proportion of men are absolute ba$tards to their wives. Perhaps then have become a single mother - how would that have affected my work life? Would I then have found love again and re-married? If so would that have affected my career?

There are so many questions that nobody can answer with certainty. All I can say is that without question, life would have - for better or for worse - been oh so very different and in many differing ways. Some of which may have been neither expected or welcomed.

Take care girls.

Anne-Marie

Caty, interesting question, and something that I have wondered about from time to time.

My mother had often said if she had had a girl, how much she would of loved to buy her clothes, and make her clothes too. So, I'm sure I would of been a pampered, very feminine girl, and then young woman, attractive even, perhaps. Then dealing men asking me out, instead of agonizing over asking women out! That truly was a tough thing for me.

I have an artistic bent, and worked in the pro photo biz, though I have a real mechanical aptitude as a male, would they have followed me through as a female? Who knows? My mother wasn't at all! Even though her job during wartime was working in a factory making airplane parts. An intelligent woman, just not her talent. She never worked from the day she was married, which was the thing to do in the very early 50's, but I know she wished she could of had a career. She was a devoted mother and housewife, which she was good at.

So perhaps I would of been doing some sales, which I've done from time to time in my career. I do love music, and have played many instruments from an early age, my mother was a fine singer, and my daughter is too, but she has real power in her voice, like an opera singer does. So perhaps I would of gone into music, which is something I now wish I had pursued with greater energy when I was younger. Though I am no singer! My paternal grandfather was a good writer, had much work published, and an uncle, one his sons was a newspaper man, and a truly excellent reporter and writer. He could really make you feel like you were actually there with the power of his words.

Both talents tend to run in families, so perhaps I'd have those as well. Sing on weekends, and write stories in the evenings, like I do now, for here, and a few other places, only as the real thing, like the look I try to have, a nice somewhat matronly woman.

I'm sure I would of become a mother myself, at least I'd hope for that for my femme self.

Amy

Actually in some ways female biology would has made my career, obstetrics and gynecology, easier, but i remember  in my medical school class of 107 students 7 were female.  Additionally in ob-gyn residency there was still some of the old surgical prejudice against women.  Now today it would actually be an asset both in residency and in employment.  Also the bane of my existence Charcot Marie Tooth disease type X which is six linked would not have crippled my hands ending my career. Having that second X chromosome would have helped a lot.

The question to me is meaningless.  If I were born female, I'd be a completely different person.  How could I possibly predict what talents I would have had, what interests I would have had, or how that would influence you for your life?  It's like the game of dropping the ball through the array of pins.  A tiny change in the initial condition can have dramatic changes in where the ball eventually ends up.

Even if my parents made love 5 minutes earlier or 5 minutes later, a different sperm might have won the race and I'd be a different person.

For the direct question "would my career have been different," the answer would almost certainly be "yes, I'd have been a completely different person."  But to answer the question "how would my career have been different," I would have to say "there is no basis to even begin speculating."

To each their own Alison....."I rest my post" on the many replies received from other posters

Caty

It’s hard to say, really. Would I have followed my mother into teaching? Probably not, given my somewhat withdrawn nature, which would also probably have precluded retail, another traditional option. Although there are many women who excel in the job I have, inventory services, the very first step, go to a dark parking lot and get in a carload of strangers, which was scary enough for a shy 19 year old guy, probably would have killed the opportunity if I was a young woman. I might have liked to become a librarian like my step-mother, or found a job in accounting.

With my family my mom was the hardest working individual in the family. She is a Medical Laboratory Technician that brought home a large paycheck while my dad worked at a machine shop but later got laid off and at one point got on drugs. I really idolize my mother for giving me and my brother a normal childhood while dealing with my dads depression and drug issues. If I was born a woman I would most likely be doing the same thing I'm doing now, following her footsteps in getting a good education and job. Hell I'm actually doing that now by applying for mlt. A lot of the female members of my family were more successful than the male and I'm proud of that🥰

The reason i seem so certain that my career would not have changed is i can never remember even considering any field other than medicine.  According to my parents when I was about three years old i walked into the living room where they were and announced “i am going to be a doctor.”  with as much certainty as i might say “The sun is shining.” I suspect my illogic sex would have done nothing to change what seemed to me at least a destiny not a choice

Without a doubt I would have been a secretary of some sort my mother was a secretary in the seventies and I would sit there and be envious of her and her silk dress pantyhose high heels with her legs crossed at her vanity putting on her makeup truth be told I wanted to be just like Mom so without a doubt my whole life I wished I would have been born a woman so I could have had that sort of job inside an office very clean wearing my dress in my nylons in my heels I'm going to the ladies room. Check my makeup I would have made a very good wife to some man and been the most Lady of ladies I still have dreams about it to this day but I do dress like that occasionally LOL

I work in a male dominated factory and if I would have been born female I would have been a secretary or a hairdresser but definitely a housewife.Oh it’s my dream to run the house wearing totally female clothes not like the young women nowadays they seem to dress more like men all the time.I would have been happy to be a housewife but  if I had a choice of jobs it would have been a secretary

I'm afraid that, like Dilbert, I was born with "the knack". I was always destined to be an Enginerd.

My current job, bus aide for special needs children, I wouldn't change it if I were born female.  Being nurturing at heart, it's the perfect job.  Sure I've been hit, kicked, bit, the pay isn't all that great, but I wouldn't give it up.