Nothing about the falling prestige of law and medicine — or the subsequent rising prestige of entrepreneurship — screams of patriarchal oppression. The absence of overt signs of sexism in these new trends, however, should not suggest that gender is inconsequential in the recent shifts in professional prestige. In fact, while tracking the fuzzy concept of “prestige” as it flits between professions, applying a gendered perspective establishes the ideals of the American Dream in stark realities.

Consider a historical comparison: If ever there was a profession that “fell down” from a once-established position of prestige in the American psyche, it would be education. Statistical analyses of the real wages of teachers show that once women broke the male monopoly in the field of education, the salaries of all teachers dropped. Was this merely the result of steady demand coupled with a doubled supply pool, pushing down the wages of educators? Before we write this bit of history off in purely economic terms, the plummeting prestige of the education industry is worth considering. Male teachers suddenly found themselves drawing less praise for their work as female teachers entered a falling-down field.

Is it too much to draw a parallel between the current situations of lawyers and doctors and the historic example set by educators? Top law schools now generally matriculate 45 to 48 percent women in any given class. Surveys of medical school admissions and matriculation rates yield comparable statistics. Just as the number of women in these fields begin to match those of men, these professions lose prestige.

Women have still not achieved equality in the fields of law and medicine. Their numbers should not cloak the insidious discrepancies between the positions and salaries of men and women in each field. If we look beyond the problems within each profession, however, and examine ways in which professions are positioned vis-a-vis one another, larger, structural issues emerge highlighting the persistence of gender norms in shaping the American psyche.

The demands of the rising professions — hedge fund managing, management consulting and entrepreneurship, according to the New York Times article — disproportionately hinder women. While the long hours and travel obligations of lawyers and doctors are nothing to regard lightly, hedge fund managing requires work hours that match the trading hours of distant time zones. Similarly, management consulting demands a rigorous schedule of nearly perpetual travel and entrepreneurship carries a degree of risk that many working women feel uncomfortable placing upon their families. Adjusting sleep schedules, jetting to new locales and mortgaging the family home to finance a new start-up are lovely and engaging pursuits for young college graduates. For those couples with children, however, it is unfeasible for both parents to engage in these activities. The reality is that lingering standards for femininity disproportionately block women from the new rising professions.

Concepts of prestige and professionalism are changing to reward those who take risks, follow their passions and lead creative lives; this is not inherently a bad thing. However, before we throw our hands together in ecstatic applause for the changes that are drifting over the American psyche, it is necessary to take a moment and inspect the implications of these changes from a critical perspective. When gender is factored into the new formula for the American dream, it becomes apparent that ours is a society in which the trappings of prestige are still not equally accessible to all.

This is the second of two editorials inspired by Alex Wiliams’s Jan. 6 article in the New York Times, “The Falling-down Professions.” The first editorial, “Profession preferences: Entrepreneurs emerge,” appeared in yesterday’s Daily.