Once-Male Dominated Jobs Now Mostly Held by Women

The composition of insurance sales agents by gender changed only slightly in the past decade. Still, the majority shifted from men to women in the past decade. In 2010, there were just under 260,000 male insurance sales agents and more than 253,400 female agents, a 50.6% to 49.4% split. A decade later, just over 321,000 women were selling life, property, health, automotive, and other types of insurance, compared to just under 320,000 men, or 50.1% and 49.9% of the occupation’s labor force, respectively.

Though the median weekly wages for women insurance sales agents has increased faster than the wages of their male counterparts in the past five years, a significant wage gap persists. Male insurance sales agents had median annual earnings equivalent to $60,788 in 2020, while the median for female agents was less than $43,000 that same year.

Postsecondary teachers, often known as professors, educate students beyond the high school level, including in colleges, universities, professional schools, or community colleges. Women now account for over 51% of professors, an increase of 5.2 percentage points since 2010.

The share of female professors has steadily increased as more and more women have met the main requirement to become a professor, which is typically earning a Ph.D. More women have earned doctorate degrees than men each year since 2006. The median annual income for female postsecondary teachers is $71,968, or 84.8% of the typical income for a male professor. This figure is just slightly lower than the 82.3% gender wage gap for all workers.

Advertising sales agents reach out to businesses and individuals to get them to buy ad space on radio and TV programs as well as websites. Women accounted for 47.6% of all ad sales agents in 2010. By 2020, that share increased to 53.8%, a 6.2 percentage point increase. In the case of ad sales agents, the increase in the share of women is not because the female workforce in this occupation is growing, but because it is not contracting as quickly as the male workforce over the past decade.

The number of male ad sales agents declined by nearly 42% from 2010 to 2020, down to 65,142. The number of female ad sales agents fell 25.5% to 75,858 in that same time frame. Overall, the total number of ad sales agents declined by over a third, from 214,000 in 2010 to 141,000 in 2020.

The artists and related workers category includes people working as fine artists, art directors, craft artists, special effects artists, animators and more. It is one of the fastest growing occupations, with the total workforce increasing by more than 31% from 2010 to 2020.

The number of female artists and related workers increased by more than 49% in recent years, from about 92,000 in 2010 to roughly 137,000 in 2020. The number of male artists increased by 15.4% over that decade, from 103,000 to 119,000. As a result, the share of female workers in the occupation rose from about 47.2% to 53.5%, a 6.4 percentage point increase.

In 2010, there were over 43,000 male news analysts, reporters, and correspondents, compared to just under 38,000 female workers in the same occupation. Over the next 10 years, the number of male journalists declined by 17.6% to 35,420. The number of female journalists increased by 9.5% to nearly 41,600.

Overall, the number of news analyst, reporter and correspondent jobs is in decline — a trend that is predicted to continue in the coming years. Media organizations are moving more towards online content and away from broadcasts over TV and radio in order to meet demand and keep costs down. From 2019 to 2029, the number of news analysts, reporters, and correspondents is projected to shrink by 11%

Lodging managers are responsible for directing, planning, and coordinating the organization of places that provide accommodations, such as hotels. Women accounted for 48.4% of the 143,000 lodging managers in America in 2010. By 2020, 56% of lodging managers were women, as the number of male lodging managers declined by more than 25%, while the number of female lodging managers declined only slightly.

From 2010 to 2015, the number of female lodging managers increased significantly, from 69,212 to more than 85,000. During that time, the number of male lodging managers grew by just over 100 to just under 74,000. With travel all but halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of lodging managers in 2020 dropped by more than 22% compared to 2015, with the workforce of male lodging managers shrinking by 26.8% and the workforce of female lodging managers shrinking by 19%.

Compliance officers ensure laws and regulations are being followed and that workers are properly trained, equipped, and licensed. They are commonly employed by state, federal, and local governments, as well as by companies in industries like metal ore mining, pharmaceutical manufacturing, mechanical manufacturing, insurance and more.

Female compliance officers earn nearly as much as males in the job, with median weekly earnings of $1,371 in 2020, compared to $1,373 for male compliance officers, a 0.2% difference. Across all workers, men earned 17.7% more than women in 2020.

Medical, dental, and ophthalmic laboratory technicians is one of just eight occupational categories in which the distribution of workers has gone from majority male to majority female over the past decade, with the share of the workforce that is female growing by more than 10 percentage points in that period. In 2010, 49% of all lab technicians were women. In 2020, women accounted for nearly 60% of lab technicians.

Of all the jobs on this list, laboratory technicians make the least money. The job has median annual earnings of just over $36,000 across all workers, male or female.

Gaming services workers are employed by places where people can gamble, like racetracks and casinos. They help customers, as well as deal and run games of chance, enforce safety rules, and more. Women now comprise a majority of these workers, at 50.6%. Their share of this occupation has increased by 12.5 percentage points since 2010 only because the number of male gaming services workers has declined more quickly.

In 2010, there were 74,900 male gaming services workers. Five years later, that figure had declined to less than 43,000. Yet the number of female gaming services workers stayed relatively even at around 46,000 from 2010 to 2015. As casinos were shuttered across the country due to COVID-19 in 2020, the number of men and women in this job fell sharply — to 32,384 female workers and 31,616 male workers.

Photographers take pictures and may choose a number of different career fields — news media, portraits, events, fine arts, commercial and industrial settings, and more.

The number of female photographers increased by nearly 53% in the last decade, while the number of male photographers shrank by 8.7%. In 2010, fewer than 40% of professional photographers were women, and now they account for 52% of the 186,000 total photographers in America. The majority of this demographic shift took place from 2010 to 2015, as women went from 39.4% to 49.9% of photographers in that five-year span.

Postal service clerk is one of just three jobs considered in which female workers went from less than half of the workforce in 2010 to over 60% of it in 2020. Women now account for 62.1% of the 91,000 postal service clerks in the U.S. These workers receive letters and parcels, sell postage, fill out and sell money orders, sort and examine mail, and more.

Like many other jobs on this list, the number of postal service clerks has been in decline for years, and it is projected to keep shrinking. From 2010 to 2020, the number of male postal service declined by nearly half, while the total number of female postal workers increased slightly. As people increasingly use email and other forms of online communication, the number of clerks is projected to continue declining, with the occupation losing 14% of its total workforce by 2029, according to the BLS.

Most judicial workers — including judges, magistrates, hearing officers, arbitrators, mediators, and more — are now women, accounting for 53.9% of the 78,000 workers in this field. From 2010 to 2020, the number of male judicial workers fell by over 20%, while the number of female judicial workers increased by 62.7%.

Judicial work ranks as the fourth highest-paying career with a majority-female workforce. The median judicial worker earns over $96,500, nearly double the $51,168 median earnings across all jobs. Judicial work typically requires a law degree, and as of 2016 women surpassed men in law school enrollment.

The career field of other health care practitioners and technical occupations includes health information technologists, medical registrars, athletic trainers, genetic counselors, surgical assistants, and more. The share of women holding jobs in this field has increased by nearly 20 percentage points in the last decade — from 43.1% in 2010 to 62.8% in 2020.

The number of the total health care practitioners and technical occupations workers has increased significantly — up to 100,000 in 2020 from 70,000 in 2010. The number of male workers declined by 6.6% during that decade to 37,200, while the number of female workers more than doubled, from 30,170 to 62,800.

Administrative services managers help organizations run more efficiently, directing activities like record keeping, mail distribution, and office upkeep. In 2010, less than 35% of administrative services managers were women. By 2020, the share of these workers who were female more than doubled to 71.7%. This 37.3 percentage point increase is the largest of any job that changed from majority male in 2010 to majority female by 2020.

Administrative services management is one of just a handful of occupations in which female employment increased sharply while male employment declined dramatically. From 2010 to 2020, the number of male workers in this field declined by 73%, from 68,224 to 18,395. At the same time the number of female workers in this job increased from 35,776 to 46,605, an increase of more than 30%. Administrative services managers are generally expected to have a bachelor’s degree, and women have earned more bachelor’s degrees than men each year since 1982.