Course change: men are more likely to look for women's jobs
In 2025, men became 40% more likely to look for work among traditionally female professions, recruitment services told Izvestia. They are posting more and more resumes for the positions of nannies and nurses. However, this trend has not yet affected the balance of power — the traditional female "advantage" of 74-90% still remains in the positions of middle-level medical staff, teachers, pastry chefs, pharmacists, seamstresses. What men who are ready to work in a women's team tell us, and how they cope with societal pressure and stereotypes, is in the Izvestia article.
What kind of jobs did men start choosing
In 2025, men were almost one and a half times more likely than a year earlier to create resumes in recruiting services for traditionally female positions. Thus, the number of resumes from representatives of the stronger sex who want to work as nannies increased by 56%, and by 52% as nurses. There were more applicants for the position of educator — an increase of 14%, Avito Rabota reported.
At the same time, employers are increasingly abandoning barriers to hiring, including gender preferences in conditions of personnel shortage, employers added to Izvestia in Superjob.
The editors talked to several men who work in traditionally female fields. Kirill Yakovlev (name changed) from Moscow is a private manicure master. In the future, he dreams of becoming a plastic surgeon, and plans to enroll in a medical university next year.
— My mother advised me to become a manicure master. She also works from home. She taught me everything, brought me clients. This profession helps me to combine work and study, besides getting good money," he shared.
But Kirill hides his occupation from friends and relatives, as he fears their reaction.
— I'm an ordinary guy, I love sports, I get to know girls. I think I won't tell my sweetheart what I'm doing at first either. I want to create the right impression," he said.
Yuri Murylev, a kindergarten teacher from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, on the contrary, is not shy about his work. He will introduce a social media channel called "Educator with a Beard."
— I tried my hand at different professions in my time.: He was a salesman, cook, handyman, and served under contract on the Black Sea. He became an educator by accident after he and his wife moved to the North. After learning about the allowances for teachers and health workers, I, a teacher of labor and computer science by training, decided to try it," he said.
For about three years he taught classes for children on LEGO construction, and then he was offered to work as a tutor for preschoolers. Now he has already "risen" to the position of senior tutor.
— The children love me very much. Perhaps it plays a role that I am the only male tutor, with a beard, and I look brutal. Perhaps I allow myself a little more and worry less than my colleagues," he added.
Yuri emphasized that he feels great in the women's team.
— The main thing is to make compliments on time, to cheer everyone up. At first, the management forgot themselves at meetings, greeted everyone with the words: "Hello, girls." There is no such thing now," the man said.
Andrey Kalashnikov from Astrakhan is the champion of Russia in professional floristry, the owner of a flower business with 20 years of experience.
— My wife Anna was supposed to go to study flower art at the International School of Floral Designers. However, almost on the day of the trip, I found out about my pregnancy. I decided to go instead," the man shared.
By education, he is a physical education teacher, and before floristry he worked at an oil plant. In the 1990s, the family was looking for an opportunity to earn money. Andrey started by helping his mother-in-law sell flowers at the market.
— The male gaze must necessarily be in floristry, as in any other art. My teacher, who is also a man, also talked about this. Women and I see the world differently," he stressed.
Which professions are considered female?
There is no official division into male and female professions. Moreover, the Labor Code explicitly prohibits discrimination based on gender. However, there is an order from the Ministry of Labor, which imposes restrictions on women to work in harmful and dangerous industries. Until 2021, the list included 456 professions: in particular, these are jobs in the metallurgical, oil and gas industries, as well as in chemical production. Then this list was reduced by almost four times to 100 positions. This is due to the fact that modern technologies have made such work safer.
"Industries with factors harmful to women's reproductive health remain on the blacklist of professions for women,— lawyer Marina Starchak explained to Izvestia.
In addition, new legislative changes came into force on February 17, 2025, which allowed women to drive self-propelled vehicles in open-pit mining and work on the surface of mines.
But in modern society, there is still a conditional division into male and female professions. The most striking examples are construction, mining, and education, said Elena Rozhdestvenskaya, professor at the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences.
According to her, traditionally men's professions include welders, car mechanics, miners, builders and drivers. And the traditionally female ones include a secretary, an accountant, a nurse, an educator, a teacher, a hairdresser, a cashier, and a flight attendant.
— In the field of education, 82% are women. At the same time, it is an industry with one of the lowest median salary levels. The situation is the opposite in the extractive industry, 83% of them are men, and the salary level is the highest among all industries," she explained.
This separation and the relationship between resumes posted on recruiting services proves this. So, according to Superjob, 97% of women apply for the position of secretary, 89% for a tailor or seamstress, 87% of applicants for the position of a pharmacist-technologist, 84% for an obstetrician-gynecologist, 83% for a pharmacist. Among the resumes for the position of assistant manager, 82% are female, 81% are for pastry chefs, 75% for teachers, and 74% for nurses.
Superjob also said that men are faster than women to pursue careers in HR management, accounting, marketing, advertising and PR, while women are faster in call centers and HR departments.
For example, there are 17% of men among the heads of HR departments, and they grow to this position on average two years faster than women. From the position of a human resources manager, this path takes the stronger sex five years, while for women it takes seven.
There are now 32% of male heads of contact centers, and they "grow" to this position on average a year longer than women (five years versus four). There are 13% of male managers in human resources departments, and it takes eight years for them to become head of department, while for women it takes seven.
Elena Rozhdestvenskaya also noted that women's professions are lower—paid than men's.
— The cluster of low-paid professions employs almost four times as many women, 11.5 million people than men. There are 3.2 million of them," she said. — There are few women in construction as a typically male industry — 12%. And within the industry, they receive on average only 4% less than men.
How men deal with social pressure
When a man enters a profession that society is accustomed to consider female, he faces an internal conflict, says psychologist Olga Adrianova.
— A man has to live not with the question "Can I cope?", but with the question "Do I have the right to be here?". It's like he's invading a territory that doesn't belong to him. And that's where the most painful part begins — the internal conflict between what is alive and present, interest, talent, craving for a profession, and what is imposed, that is, with the role of a "real man." And it's important to be able to cope with your complex emotions," she said.
According to her, men in women's professions sometimes have to deal with "condescending smiles," "hidden appreciation," and sometimes direct doubts about competence and good intentions.
— The underlying difficulty here is not external, but internal: the ability to stay true to yourself in a place where society laughs. Men who withstand this usually become very strong specialists. Because such a path is always a conscious choice, not following a pattern," the psychologist emphasized.
The specialist added that the female environment can be radically different from the society to which a man is accustomed.
— Women's groups often rely not only on tasks, but also on subtle, unspoken connections.: who is friends with whom, who trusts whom, who helps whom through a difficult day. This is a space where relationships are not a background, but a part of the working atmosphere," the expert explained.
She noted that a man can feel like a "foreign body" in such a team: as if everyone knows the rules of the game, but he doesn't.
— And if you try to break through by force, logic, jokes or a demonstration of competence, you can only increase the distance. Because it's more important here not to prove, but to tune in," the psychologist noted.
She recommended starting the adaptation in the women's team not by trying to "fit in", but by observing. Women's groups notice not the words, but the tone — sincerity, respect for boundaries, lack of attempt to compete and assert themselves based on gender, the specialist emphasized.
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