Gender role assumptions
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 by AriSince I moved about a year ago I’ve met a lot of new people, which invariably involves having a lot of the same conversations many times. (What’s your name? Where did you move from? Where do you live? Buy or rent?, etc, etc). Since Rebecca often works on weekends, and I often meet new people in synagogue on shabbat, I’ve also had the following conversation about a dozen times:
Stranger: <something innocuous about the location of my wife, assuming, since I have a small child, that am in fact married and not a kidnapper>
Me: She’s working today.
Stranger: Where does she work?
Me: Children’s National Medical Center.
Stranger: Oh, is she a nurse?
Me: No, Doctor.
So far I don’t think I’ve met a single person who has concluded that my wife is a doctor, and at least a dozen who have concluded that she’s a nurse. I don’t think I have to tell you that if it was my wife explaining that I worked in a hospital, this number would almost certainly be reversed.
