I Want Your Job, Lady!

THOMAS MICHAEL ALLEMAN FOR TIME
When the tech bubble burst, former Marine and professional football player Reginald Grant, 47, turned to teaching

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As a young man, Reginald Grant, 47, excelled in traditionally male, high-earning fields. A former Marine and defensive back for the New York Jets, he segued smoothly into subsequent careers in financial planning and software sales. During the tech boom, Grant co-founded two sports-related Internet-based companies. "I was a shark," he says. "You eat what you kill." But after the tech bubble vaporized, he found himself staring at a billboard advertising a teaching fellowship in Los Angeles. A year later, he's teaching honors English to eighth-graders in the tough Watts neighborhood. He makes $36,000; in tech his base salary alone was $60,000. "My lifestyle has taken a change, but I touch kids nobody else could touch," he says. "Every day I make a difference."

Men like Grant are learning what women have known for years. "The secret of these so-called women's jobs is that they do in fact involve a lot of skill and training," says Heidi Hartmann, a labor economist and president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Men often require more training and vetting for household positions, but the Pavillion Agency has fielded a "flood" of resumes from out-of-work men believing they can easily nab a post as, say, a personal chef.

Some experts doubt the durability of the male-to-female-job trend. A University of Pennsylvania study found, for example, that within four years of graduating, male nurses leave their profession at twice the rate of women. Another study seemed to determine that gender flexibility is even bad for you: women in top management and men playing Mr. Mom have an increased risk of heart disease. So when the economy recovers, as it someday must, will murses and mannies go back to traditionally male jobs?

Many men profess a commitment to their new occupations, though fitting in is not always easy. "There are conversations I wish I had never walked into, girl stuff like menstrual cycles," says Nurse Strumph. But there are some sweet perks. Says Morgan of his job as a manny: "The ladies think it's great."