These Indians Aren’t Afraid to Take on Jobs Once Considered 'Unconventional' for Men

Men are supposed to macho right? They’re supposed to earn their living through sports and testosterone-fuelled stock trading and engineering colleges, after which they have to support families, and be like, well… ‘men’.

Times though, they are a changin’. With many jobs shifting to being automated, men are changing with the times too, shedding the weight of expectation and masculinity associated with traditional job roles. We spoke to three men who are currently happily employed in what are usually considered ‘women’s jobs’, challenging the definitions of ‘masculinity’, one 9-to-5 day at a time.

Men, for some reason, don’t get jobs as primary school teachers. According to Srishti Paliwal, a Project Manager at one of India’s biggest Educational NGOs, “Male teachers don’t deal as well with the sensitivity of little kids. In terms of patience and understanding kids’ sensibilities, male candidates don’t demonstrate as much of an aptitude as female ones. It’s why more men teach middle and high schools.”

28-year-old Nirpendra Kumar, a primary school teacher in Gurgaon’s Shiv Nader School is trying to change that. Kumar is the only male teacher amongst nearly 50 teachers in his school, and one of three across all three branches of Shiv Nadar School in Delhi NCR. He teaches Social Science, Environment Science and Hindi.

“I’m the first male teacher in primary school that they’ve ever had,” he told VICE. “Some of my female colleagues were brought up in the [patriarchal] system, and they do pass comments, but it’s okay,” he added.

Having grown up with a father who was a farmer in a house with a traditionally patriarchal division of labour, Kumar came to Delhi, and everything changed. He says he was sensitised to gender issues after coming to Delhi in 2011, while speaking with fellow students in Delhi University (he studied at Hindu College), the National Service Scheme, and hanging around with people from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

What aided the change? Reading about feminism and tribal culture. “There isn’t any gender bias in my class amongst the students—from their upbringing, and what I try to work on in class,” he said. “Our work is important, not gender,” he added.

Ruzbeh Maloo is 31, relatively good-looking, and a receptionist at a co-working space. “I don’t think they [the clients] get upset seeing a man, hoping to see a woman at the desk. All they expect is good service,” Maloo said.

He handles community operations at the building, in addition to housekeeping, making sure the pantry is stocked, and the air conditioning keeps running, all the while making sure the place is squeaky clean. He does this five days a week, nine hours a day.

“With time, everyone has gotten accustomed to men and women being the same. No one reacts differently to seeing a man at the reception desk,” he said. He’s not new to it. Maloo was at the front desk of Mumbai’s JW Marriot for 10 years, inspite of not having a Hotel Management degree.

“In 2018, no job is small or big or discriminated by gender. It’s dependant on what skill you have, how well you cope under pressure, and how good you are at what you do,” he concluded.

“80% of my clients were film stars. There’s no moviestar I haven’t worked with,” Anil Sunil told me. “I did Shraddha Kapoor’s manicure and pedicure for nearly two years. Kareena Kapoor, Sunny Leone, Aamir Khan too. All of them came to me because I’m good at my job,” he added.

Sunil is 32 and a pedicurist at The White Door, a salon in Mumbai. He’s been in the ‘nails business' for nearly 11 years, even spreading his wings to physiotherapy for young cricketers in Azad Maidan. All this, inspite of not having a college degree, and barely scraping through the 12th grade.

“Growing up, I went to gyms, got interested in the process of massaging, cleaning, and maintaining a body,” he told VICE. “After completing school, my friends used to tell me that I won’t make that much money. Now I make more money than them.”

There aren’t statistics on how many men get pedicures, but looking at the difference in their and the average woman’s feet, maybe we can all assume that the ratio is skewed more towards women. According to Sunil, it’s because most men think it’s a ‘woman’s thing’. “I try to tell them that it’s important. Foot skin is as important as someone’s face. Nails too, because when we walk in somewhere, it’s the first thing people notice. It’s what we put our entire body’s stress on, and its care is very important,” he said.

“I joined this line because I was interested in it. Unlike many people, including many of my friends, what I do satisfies me everyday,” he added.