Are our eyes invisible to diversity in the workplace?

What do you picture when you think of a truck driver?
What do you picture when you think of a basketball coach? A business person? A pilot? A firefighter? A taxi driver? A carpenter? A video game player?
If I am not wrong, all those pictures that came instantly into your mind, all the characters, are men.
What do you picture when you think about a nurse? What about a receptionist? A cleaner?
You guess it right, most people think about women characters.
Men as well as women do perform those jobs but seem invisible to the eyes of society.



Why do jobs have to be connected to a specific gender?
Why don't women nor men appear as the first recall in our minds for these jobs? Why most people believe that women cannot perform these jobs as well as men do or even better and vice-versa?
What can we do to change that?


Aren't women able to drive a cab? Aren't women able to coach a basketball team, either a men's or women's team? Aren't women able to be firefighters, pilots, video game players? Aren't men able to become nurses or receptionists? Aren't men able to cook and become stay-at-home dads?
Why do we put someone's gender before someone's skills? Aren't the skills what really count to do any type of job? Haven't we all put the same amount of hard work, effort, hours, and learning to be able to excel at what we do? Then, why should something that we don't have any power over restrain us from shining? Why something we didn't choose puts a curtain over what we are capable of'?

Diversity starts not when women aren't treated right, but when gender doesn't matter in any way.

Job applications should not have the gender option (except with rare exceptions). Women should be able to be seen and imagined as carpenters, firefighters, and coaches. Men should be able to be seen and believed as nurses, receptionists, and cleaners. And neither of them should be ashamed, ridiculized or discriminated just because they don't fit the stereotype imposed by society.

Diversity, however, goes beyond gender.
Age, race, gender, sexual preference, religion, national origin, etc. Why does this matter when applying for a job? Any of these? Who said an old atheist lesbian African-American cannot be a great astronaut? None of these "features" affect the performance of an astronaut.

The main issue here is not diversity itself. It's about how we see diversity. We see diversity as a favor, as a concession, as going the extra mile for society. On the other side, diversity is a strength. Diversity is an investment with a higher ROI (return on investment). Diversity is one of the reasons the US became a powerful nation. The US would not be the same without the resilience of the English, the happiness of the Italian, the fierceness of the Irish, the endurance of the Africans brought here as slaves, just to name a few.
Lack of diversity makes a numb nation because then, we would become unidimensional. And most of the issues require a multidimensional approach.

Lastly, if you ask any Wall Street white male investment banker (the typical stereotype) what is the primary strategy to protect your investment, his answer will be:
Diversify.