REPORTS SHOW THAT increasingly more men are working in jobs that used to be regarded as those for women. China Youth Daily comments:

Jobs such as being a nurse, a member of the aircraft cabin crew or a kindergarten teacher were generally considered "women's work". Being a nurse was even considered strictly women only. However, that is no longer the case.

Over the past several years, increasingly more men have been employed for such jobs, although their total percentage is still rather low. According to official data, more than 80 percent of primary school teachers in Beijing and Shanghai are female. In coastal provinces such as Zhejiang, only 10 percent of newly recruited primary school teachers are male.

The main cause of such an imbalance has its roots in traditional culture, in which men had privileged positions. Therefore, to break this gender imbalance, it is necessary to change the old thinking first. In some sense, the more modernized a society is, the more jobs will be open to both men and women.

Fortunately, now the trend is rather positive in metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai. The percentage of male teachers in kindergartens and primary schools is still low, but it is growing. Hopefully, society develops a more tolerant attitude and jobs stop being viewed as gender specific. This will help both men and women free themselves from the shackles of gender prejudice.