Hey, I'll be a professional on field where I may end up working with children. I know how to interact with children. But I feel discomfort about how I perceive my role there. So stereotypically female. Or actually, I feel worried about other people perceiving me that way... Maybe both... I really don't feel comfortable about being seen as a maternal kind of woman... I see the work in itself as valuable and also interesting. I just am afraid of stigma or something.. I've talked to some people and they say I'm overthinking it. What do you think?
I work with children as well, but I don't think those of us at my job are seen as stereotypical maternal figures. I would be rather upset if someone did see me that way actually... Anyway! I'm a counselor at a summer camp for kids ages 5-13. There are lots of counselors both male and female, and I never really saw any of us in a maternal or stereotypical light except for the directors. For the last two years the directors have both been young teachers around their early to late twenties who work with kindergartners and elementary students. They were definitely maternal people, but everyone else isn't really seen that way in my eyes. What kind of work are you doing? Daycare? Teaching?
My work is on healthcare, quite female"heavy" field. I do care about people, it doesn't really matter what age, they're human beings anyway. I also find healthcare job in general to be important work and I'm going to be a specialist on a small area that is very interesting. So I don't doubt it being the right field for me. I think "caring" personality shouldn't just be seen as a maternal quality, I think it is simply a good humane quality to care about others. I think it should be very much encouraged for males too to be caring about other people, just as it is for females. And yeah, it really does seem like people don't stigmatize us as easily as I imagine. I suppose it only happens if you really have that personality. And I've been thinking that, it definitely should be possible to work well with children with our own personalities. I mean, it should be possible for cismales too. And I don't stigmatize other people on my field to be maternal figures either, so I don't know why I'm so worried of other people thinking that about me. I suppose it is just silly.
