Part 2 of this article is here now. This time, let’s build on the induction of Nigerian Air Force Girls’ Military School graduates into the armed forces, which, while framed as a progressive stride, also forces us to confront the deeply embedded systems that have long sidelined women in the workplace. We earlier examined the quiet enforcers of this erasure – gender scripts known as Horizontal and Vertical Occupational Gender Segregation in the workforce, funnelling women into “gender-appropriate” fields—education, social work, caregiving—roles often linked to nurturing or domesticity, amongst other segregation. So it’s not a matter of competence, but convenience.
The ills of this segregation
This is not only about personal disappointment, but also limits women’s economic power: When women are prevented from working in high-paying jobs and industries, they are unable to earn sufficient income to meet their needs. It reinforces a damaging cycle where women earn less, save less, and retire into poverty more often than men. This isn’t just a gender issue—it’s an economic crisis.
Poor job & personal satisfaction: Another ill of segregation is that it leaves women dissatisfied with their jobs, sometimes feeling cheated for spending years acquiring a qualification, and unable to work in their desired fields. Imagine studying engineering for five years, only to be nudged into procurement or HR because that’s where “women fit in.” It’s a silent betrayal that leaves many women disillusioned and quietly resentful.
It erodes women’s professional agency: It tells them from a young age that certain dreams are off-limits. By establishing laws that limit women from certain occupations, women’s agency to chart their desired career pathways is stolen. This internalised limitation could also manifest as personal development barriers. They can opt out of STEM subjects, believing they can’t do math.
Slow or Stalled Career Progression: A more grievous effect of occupational segregation is how it slows down women’s career growth. This usually manifests in the glass ceiling effect, which prevents women from advancing to higher levels of leadership and success within and across organisations. This has a ripple effect on women’s personal and career satisfaction and women’s economic progression.
So, What is the Way Forward?
In a world where we have shaped women and girls’ perception of possibility, men’s participation in the workforce remains higher than women’s (74% men compared to 47% women, according to the UN World Report in 2020). What can be done to address the disparity?
Governments must act: Review laws that shut out women from certain industries and promulgate laws that promote access for all. Protective laws that bar women from so-called “hazardous” industries must be reviewed, not to expose women to danger, but to give them the right to choose. Regulation should focus on workplace safety for all, not gendered exclusion.
Organisations must be intentional: Diversity is not just a buzzword—it’s a strategic imperative. Employers should dismantle policies that pigeonhole women into certain roles and instead provide equal training, mentoring, and promotion pathways. Cultural shifts must eliminate the “boys’ club” mentality in leadership pipelines and hold organisations accountable for gender outcomes in leadership. They must also address infrastructural issues, like sanitation and childcare, that are too often treated as peripheral but are central to workplace inclusion.
We also need to unlearn: It starts with interrogating the casual stereotypes we repeat in our organisations, homes, and communities. We need to stop applauding little boys for being assertive while calling little girls “bossy” for the same trait. Change begins with how we speak to children about ambition, and cultural norms that depict women as domestic care workers and men as engineers must stop.
We need more visible role models: Representation isn’t symbolic, it’s catalytic. When young girls see women flying planes, drilling oil, or commanding troops, the impossible becomes imaginable. And the imaginable becomes attainable. We must stop positioning women’s success in male-dominated spaces as exceptional or symbolic. Women don’t need to be heroines to be in tech, construction, or the military, they need equal access and support.
Finally, occupational gender segregation may not be enforced by law in every instance, but it is upheld by culture, assumptions, policies, habits, and silence. If we are serious about equity in every sense, we must dismantle the invisible cages we have built around women’s ambition. Inclusion isn’t about letting women in; it’s about questioning why they were left out.
