By Abdul Azeez Sulaiman
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| Guardian News Nigeria |
Actually, Sir Alice Eagly's argument on stereotypes which is based on grounded observation of everyday life is an intellectual work that does make me echo some of my childish days. Then, whenever I was in the midst of my peers and the point of our discussion began bouncing to the angle of the occupation of our parents, friends would be mentioning theirs with confidence and when it reached my turn I would feel reluctant to mention mine.
It is very obvious that the reluctance I had then was a result of the phobia of not being socially isolated, embarrassed, or even humiliated. The logic of this argument is very simple.
You know, as a little kid who has limited knowledge of the background of things, we know nothing except what we are fed by society to digest. Our knowledge then was based on societal background. So, now! how would you do when society paints your job with unpleasant colors which are; dirtiness, poverty, laziness, introvertive, prostitution, and so on!
For the purpose of clarification, an occupational stereotype is a pre-conceived attitude about a particular occupation, about people who are employed in that occupation, or about one's suitability for that occupation. In other words, it is a situation whereby unpleasant perfume is spread to some occupation and this then gives birth to a holistic opportunity of reducing or delisting the embracement and acceptance of those labeled jobs in society.
Buttressing on how it is done is that it doesn't only
center on work but often includes people who engage in that work, their
folks, and even to some extent their place of work.
For instance, farming, bricklaying, and other related works are attached with the label of dirtiness. Hairdressing is associated with prostitution. Shoemaking and Alfa are attributed to laziness and so on.
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| schoolofshoemaking.com |
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| melanmag.com/ |
Therefore, the pertinent question is: if these amazing
occupations are associated with these filthy attributes and as a result people
refrain from doing it, how then do you think that our nation will attain a developmental
position?
How do you think we wouldn't put the next generation in
dilemma?
For this, this article will explore its implication for our
country.
The first effect of this occupational stereotype is its massive contribution to the huge unemployment. When people give a work or job a bad image, due to its unpleasant stereotype, a lot of people wouldn't want to engage in that work thereby just being engaged by a few.
Consequently,
people that have run away from those jobs would be looking for another work
which is, perhaps, those given an amiable image. So this then will lead to massive patronage for those who get the
said 'good job' and those that are not opportune to get it would not go back
to other jobs rather sit and be crying about being unemployed. Just like Nigeria,
our agricultural sector will elucidate more on this.
Another valid point is the issue of a toxic workplace,
"toxic workplace is a situation where an employer finds it difficult to work
or progress in their career due to negative atmosphere created by co-workers or
supervisors..." Argues Abdul Salam Ibrahim in his recent article.
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| businesswire.com |
What is the origin of a toxic workplace? And what does
precipitate into it?
But wait! Before answering,
how wouldn't occupational stereotypes lead to this?
When you color some work with unethical and unpleasant paint, people will run away from it and move swiftly to the one uncolored with those negative adjectives perhaps a white-collar job. Doing this will precipitate many people into crowding in and asking for a single position or work.
So this
then will also give the employer the
thought that without that work you are likely not to survive or even be
existed. Because they know that you have
nowhere to go if it happens that you angrily leave the job. Then they
will start using that opportunity to bully you, maltreat you, and
give you taxing things to do.
The last is the issue of progressivity entirely. When are we going to understand that the type of education we do acquire in Nigeria is the type that does not give room for us to contribute immensely to the development of the state? I don't mean only secondary education but education entirely including that of our higher institution.
No wonder, when the guy that built a motor was asked whether he would go to any Nigerian university, he replied quickly by saying that even if he see a scholarship, he wouldn't hesitate to reject it. How are you going to be productive with the task of cramming past questions?
This is why I do give credit to a rural area in Nigeria where vocational training is not being taken lightly. Where the stereotype of our indigenous occupation is less stereotyped. You would see that there, the netizens will contribute to the growth of the society through their own product, their own technology unlike most urban that everything is imported and white-collar jobs eliminate the indigenous vocational work.
Although you might posit that there are low graduates and
intellectual academically in these areas but they are doing good compare to
their colleagues which is urban areas where everyone is producing, where
everyone is being engaged in vocational training from his childhood so
that before he reaches the stage of maturity
he would have reached the stage of an expert in that field.
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