gender roles incorporated into the workforce

In class we pointed out that the engineering school is highly populated with males. We failed to mention that the nursing school is made up of mostly girls though. This may be because women have certain characteristics that males lack that put them at a higher level in this field of work. Women are able to produce children, therefore they have a nurturing and compassionate side built into them. These characteristics are vital in the nursing world. If you don't have the ability to empathize with your patients then you will be unable to relate to them.
Here are a couple studies that look further into this:

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/01/men_women_and_empathy.php

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/women_more_empathic_than_men/

I could not find this study, but I've heard of one involving a wife and husband. The man was connected to a machine that sent electric shocks through his body. The woman had to watch as this happened. They monitored both of their brains and it showed that the same areas in the brain signaled pain in both the man and in the women. It was just like the wife was feeling the same pain as the husband. However, when they switched roles and the women was getting the electric shocks as the male was watching, the male had no signals in his brain showing pain.