Men don't care about women's jobs

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I work for a big healthcare provider, which covers about a quarter of England. The company has been having a two year long admin review. Yesterday my colleagues and I were all pulled into the large meeting room and given the news that we all expected. Jobs are being cut and jobs are being downgraded. People will lose money and there is really no room for progression past £12 an hour in this trust anymore.
We were all women. 25 of us. I imagine this isn't unusual for the trust. Most women I know work in admin. A representative for the review didn't even turn up for us to ask any questions or to explain the process. That's how little they value us, they sent a PowerPoint presentation to do their dirty work.
My opinion is that the men at the top feel that women are of little value. They see us all as replaceable, and that we don't care much about career progression because so many of us are part time. Plus we probably have a man at home whose earning the real money. This is just a bit of pocket money for us, to break up the monotony.
I just get the feeling men would push back against this kind of thing more. At the end I was one of the only women to vent my frustrations that no one was there to ask the very important questions to. I feel like becoming a Union rep just so I get to actually speak to someone about this. I'm not even one of the ones effected as I'm the lowest of the low and they can't actually take away anymore of my pay but I'm angry on others behalf. Why do some women just seem to accept this shit?

That’s shit and I’m inclined to agree that it’s because it’s a female dominated sector

Just look at retail - thousands of jobs have been lost this past decade and no one seems to really give a shit.

To be fair mass redundancies also happen in work places that are very male-orientated. (Manufacturing for example).

Healthcare is particularly prone to redundancies at the moment because of government lead austerity measires.

Your anger could be usefully applied as a union representative but recognise that structural economic decisions rather than sexism are at play here.

Admin jobs are so undervalued and underpaid. They still get away with paying the same as I remember them being advertised for 20 years ago, when I left Uni. Admin jobs are so far removed from the typist and filing clerks that used to constitute a company's admin. In yet, some jobs which require few celebral skills or education - like warehouse worker or supermarket security or estates staff - more typically carried out by males, have typically been paid more.

Some of the biggest redundancy losses have fallen to men.
Our country is falling to bits and everyone is affected.

If you want to do something like becoming a union rep, you should do it. You could make a difference and you sound like you would be good at it. I see some of these issues as mainly structural/institutional inequalities that men don't specifically want or directly cause, but at the same time we all need to recognise and correct them rather than just seeing them as "how it is". However, the lack of a representative here seems not just like a lack of interest in their part but actually a possibly conscious decision to create a barrier to any action on your part. You should address it. Good luck!

There is a definite trend across society generally of "women's work" being valued less than men. Traditionally female heavy sectors, such as nursing, PAing, etc attract less income and less social cachet than traditionally masculine work, regardless of the actual skill or effort involved.

I do agree that there are redundancy's across the country but there seems to be a lot made of some in the media and not others. I do feel that gender comes into it.
I work in secure services, I am a ward clerk for a rehab ward of men detained by the mental health act, usually they've been transferred from prison. Our jobs are tough. Yesterday I went to the toilet on a different ward and there was just a man watching me through the glass, grinning. I regularly go into the ward for meetings, to make a drink or to ask a service user a question about their food choices or doctors appointments. There is an element of risk as these men have criminal pasts and they don't see any other women. There's also a lot of responsibility for the security of the unit. Imagine if I accidentally held the door open for someone or didn't send a letter to the ministry of justice on time? I'm paid £8.78 per hour.
Now they are saying that for that money I have to do the same work as someone a pay grade above me, for no extra money. It's so unfair. I feel men would just tell them that they aren't happy to do that. However we have been raised to nod, to accept, to do whatever to keep the peace, to make the tea, to work through lunch-breaks. I wish my colleagues had more fight in them.

There have been a series of articles in the guardian about how the job losses since austerity measures have had a greater effect on women than men. Possibly by Frances Ryan?

Yeah that's really shit.
I presume you're in the public sector?

There are massive cuts across the public sector and believe me they are not discriminating on the basis of sex. (The police force eg).

Yes, women are more 'agreeable' when it comes to accepting a low wage, that's a different issue.

When it comes to cuts to a work force though, economic decisions do not account for maleness or femaleness.

My male friend who cares for the elderly has experenced dramatic losses to his sector and staff cuts he is also experiencing stresses.
It's important to direct anger where it's due which isn't necessarily sexism but is usually economic incompetence due to bad governance.

Thats not a job you should be paid minimum wage for doing. You couldn't pay me to step foot on to a secure/forensic mens mental health ward.

@DpWm yes I am. Do you not think '1000's of police staff face job cuts' makes a bigger impact than 'admin assistants in the NHS lose their jobs'?
But we are just as important as those on the 'front line.' I've even heard people in my own establishment talking about how there's too many admin and that they 'don't know what we do all day.' The fact that they don't get how important medical secretary's, information governance and medical record clerks, financial assistants, receptionists and ward admin are in their own trust are is astounding. I do think this links back to women not blowing their own trumpets enough.

@BadPennyNoBiscuit I really enjoy my job, and I feel like I can make a difference to their lives. But I used to earn more working in a deli eating olives and Brie all day and listening to 6 music. It's not really fair that I'll never get a pay rise.

I think most people would assume you'd be paid a lot more than £8 an hour for your job.

I think it’s capatalism which builds on patriarchy rather than simple sexism...structural

@BadPennyNoBiscuit the healthcare assistants are also band 3, obviously you get more the longer you stay but there's no 'danger pay.' The HCA's are also largely women and non British nationals, not many men would stay for that money.

You are right . I encourage all my children to go into jobs which have traditionally been Male dominated as they generally pay more and have better T and Cs.

Many worthwhile jobs which contribute a lot to society have crap wages or conditions just because they are mostly female eg care workers, cleaners, nursery workers, hairdressers, many admin jobs.

Why do you think woman are drawn to low paid roles? Flexibility? I was thinking about this recently about ‘typical’ woman’s roles being not well paid and often at risk of redundancy.. I agree it’s true but it’s also led me to wonder why woman degrade themselves to these roles?
I work in a very Male dominated industry, they’ve not had a woman come to an interview in years - I do the hiring and would love to hire another woman.
I’m not being goady I’m curious as to why this happens.

My wife is working as a masters qualified scientist in the private sector, and the male and female staff are paid roughly the same - very poorly. She is on £12 per hour, but some of the junior scientists/technicians are on around £8-9 per hour.
Wages are falling back in all sectors and jobs atre being cut all over the place.

Women are not drawn to low paid roles. The roles are low paid because they are done by women. Or immigrants.

We pay foster carers a little money because we don’t want to attract the wrong sort of people, who are just in it for the money .

We pay CEOs a lot of money because apparently it’s necessary to attract the right sort of people.

Guess which job is mostly female ?

@Newbuild if I'm honest it's my skill set. I'm good with people. I work on reception and it takes a lot of empathy to talk to people who are sometimes hostile and put yourself in their shoes. I have to remember that they are parents and they ever imagined coming to visit their child in a facility like ours.
I also have to remember how all of the various service users prefer to be treated, adapt my register, reason with people who are distressed or paranoid.
I'm not a technical person and wouldn't suit many male dominated professions but I don't understand why my skill set is valued less. Find me an engineer who could be a good receptionist, or childcare practitioner or mental health nurse. We all have our own skills, let's celebrate them rather than tell women that they have to adapt to working in a sector that they might not want to. If they do want to then all the power to them! I think all women and men deserve the chance to earn a living wage no matter what their skill set.

Women are not drawn to low paid roles

The thing is, we are. In the sense that we tend to put up with the low paid jobs, because we are attracted to the work. I was told long ago to go into STEM, but I didn’t listen.

Why?

Because I wasn’t interested, and I would have rather worked a job I liked than a well-paid job I hated. Still not sure I made the right decision :/ but at least my industry is also full of poorly paid men ....

Perhaps men are willing to go for the money, even if it’s an industry they hate, are not suited for, or are not good at.

@PineapplePower I can't remember that being the case for my male friends in secondary school. They all had apprenticeships lined up after they left school and chose them because they wanted to earn money right away and hang out on building sites together.
Us girls were jealous of them because they bag 'loads' of money to go to festivals and nights out whilst we were doing our A Levels. They might have been jealous of us getting to wake up later on the morning but I never heard any of them express any desire to have studied humanities or art subjects.
Now years later, we are married to these men who are earning huge amounts more than us but I wouldn't say we had drastically easier lives. I'd happily be a bricklayer but I wasn't born with the strength that my friend was who is a bricklayer, he's built like the proverbial house and can lift 50kg easily. It's not fair that my job should be so much less valued by society.

Presumably there were boys doing A levels as well as you and your female friends?

@AssassinatedBeauty no they were all studying to be sparkeys, plumbers, mechanics, bricklayers etc.

Honestly there were very few boys studying A Levels in my secondary school sixth form. But that was my area.