I spent time in two different medical offices today (I'm fine, thanks for asking). Out of curiosity I began counting how many women were employed in each.
A multiple doctor ophthalmology office had roughly 15 women employed there doing a variety of clerical and sub-professional tasks. A multi-doctor cardiology office had another 14 or so sub-professional and clerical women on staff.
The medical/dental field employs several hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of women in this semi-rural community of roughly 100K souls. These jobs are essentially recession-proof, sickness knows no holidays.
Off hand, I can think of no analogous field which hires the same number of men (with less than baccalaureate degrees) and provides the same sort of employment security. An aging society utilizes a lot of medical services and those employ a cluster of women supporting each professional.
