- Only 3.5% of firefighters are women.
- It took until 2018 for a woman to be nominated for an Oscar in cinematography.
- Women hold 7.8% of aerospace engineering jobs.
Women have made incredible progress in joining the workforce, fighting for equal pay, and rising to the top of their fields. But some career paths have more progress left to make than others.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) 2017 databook on women in the labor force tracked the percentages of women in a variety of occupations. The data comes from the Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by BLS and the US Census Bureau, and included 60,000 participants from all 50 states.
Software developers
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| © Francois Mori/AP |
In the US, 20% of software developers are women. Tech is still a notoriously sexist field: a recent study claims that "more than a third of tech industry employees have experienced or witnessed sexism."
Farmers
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| © Jordan Fischer/Flickr |
Only 24.8% of farmers in the US are women, and less than 10% of leadership positions in agriculture are filled by women.
Construction managers
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| © Bebeto Matthews/AP |
Just 7.4% of construction managers in the US are women. Groups like Professional Women in Construction (PWC) seek to support and empower women in the industry with chapters in different cities.
Financial analysts
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| © Mark Lennihan/AP |
Aerospace engineers
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| © Bennett Raglin/AP Images for United Technologies |
Clergy
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| © Taimy Alvarez, AJC/AP |
In the US, 17.6% of clergy is female. Some religious sects don't ordain women as clergy, which contributes to the disparity and is referred to by some as the "stained glass ceiling."
Camera operators
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| © Frank Augstein/AP |
Television, video, and motion picture camera operators and editors are predominantly male, with women making up 21.4% of the field. Rachel Morrison became the first woman to be nominated for an Oscar in cinematography in 2018.
Architects
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| © Cheryl Gerber/AP Images for Mattel |
About half of architecture students are women, but they are underrepresented in the field itself, which is 26% female. The New York Times reports that many women in architecture face discrimination from male colleagues and are often not paid equally.
Pilots
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| © Shutterstock |
5.2% of US aircraft pilots and flight engineers are female. Conde Nast Traveler reports that the difficulties of breaking into the field include the costs of flight training, gaps in women's science and math education, and the difficult work-life balance.
Firefighters
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| © Craig Ruttle/AP |
Most firefighters in the US are male - 3.5% of them are women. Some firehouses in the US are still hiring female firefighters for the first time.
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