Gender Discrimination and Nursing

There are benefits to traditional gender roles, but there are also drawbacks. The drawbacks for males are: Personal Self-Worth Being Tied to Job Position and Income and Less Time for Family Life. Last year my boyfriend was forced to quit his previous job because his hours interfered with his school schedule. Before he found his new job in the career field of his major, he was very depressed because I had to pay all of our monthly bills by myself. Even though it was only for a month, he felt “less of a man”. When I was in middle school, for six months my dad had to work every weekend overnight in addition to his 8am - 4:30pm work schedule. Because of his excessive working, we did not spend much time together as a family during this time. Another example is I work at Payless and at my store it is made up of only women. Some men will come in and ask for applications, but when they ask me the question of, “Do any men work here?” and I tell them no, they immediately decide to not apply. This is because they do not feel the job is masculine enough because women work there. Another example is if you were to survey students based on majors in college, you would see

Sex discrimination is when a person is treated less favourably than a person of the opposite sex would be treated in the same or similar circumstances.

profession and should be respected as such. Congruent with nursing stereotypes comes gender roles. Naturally, women are the care-takers thus the profession is predominately female, but it should be noted that this predisposition of women taking on this role has too altered the perception of nursing. “Although the number of men in nursing is growing, campaigns and targeted recruitments should be displayed more often to draw more men into the profession” (Cohen 2007).

Many male nurses offer the physical strength needed for tasks like moving patients and heavy equipment.

Saving lives matters. You do not have to be a Doctor or a Police officer to save a person life. Being a Nurse has greater or equal value in saving someone life. A registered nurse or RN is a person who has graduated with a nursing degree from an accredited college or university, has passed the state board examination and is licensed to practice nursing. It is very important for a person who wants to become a nurse to research the pros and cons of the different areas of nursing. Gender is a big role in nursing, especially when a specific area of interest is chosen by the individual. For instance, women are gentle so they will probably do well with caring for the babies. While the men are physically strong, they are needed in the physical therapy area to help with lifting patients. Being a nurse you must have patience, customer service, being independence, and honesty. I believe that being a nurse will not be an easy task. Becoming a nurse takes hard work and dedication. Being a nurse may be an accomplishment for those that enjoy helping others. It also has great pay and benefits and offers a secure job for a career.

Men currently are looked down on in the nursing profession due to many different beliefs. While it’s true in some, if not a very rare few, these beliefs are what make the nursing profession for men uncomforting and discouraging. It is believed many male nurses are gay and because of this lack the acceptance they look for. Another belief is that men have an inappropriate ‘sexual’ behavior. They must be careful when caring (touching) for a patient in any way. Men are highly subject to accusations and it makes it almost impossible for a male nurse to perform his job to the fullest (Evans).

The nursing field was mostly dominated by males before world war one, but census data from 2011 states that “Women outnumber them 10:1.” in the nursing field (Diamond). What used to be the norm of men being nurses and doctors have now switched. Josh Mitchell from the wall street journal reported that "Women account for a third of the nation's lawyers and doctors, a major shift from a generation ago”

Thus explaining that regardless of one’s skill set they base the choice of career or lack of career on their cultural beliefs and when a male or female steps outside of the boundary that society has placed they are chastised for their decision. For example, in 2013 94% of nurses were females and only 6% were males, Wilson (2013) indicated the primary reason for this being that society views nursing as a care taking role with the best nurses having a maternal instinct (p. 1). Therefore, placing a more family orientated role on the nursing field. Although, Wilson (2013) also established that regardless of nursing being a more female orientated career, males still made approximately $1,100 more than their female counterparts. Leading to the realization that society even in a female oriented career field still places more value on men than women when it comes to a career driven

Nurses Facing Oppression What is oppression? Often times, people think of oppression in terms of race, gender, or religious groups. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, oppression is, “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power” (Merriam-Webster.com).

To begin, gender roles are the expected behaviors that are associated with one’s sex (Croteau). Reiterating, women played the role of the nurturer for most of history. They cared for their children, kept the house tidy, did some farming and some labor but never as much as the men. When more defined jobs came into play they still incorporated a role that depicted women as a caregiver. During the 19th and 20th century, the medical profession was considered suitable for females. Even then, men for the most part worked in the hospitals as nurses. Home nursing was thought to be more proper for women (Women’s History In America).

Up until the 1800’s, the job of a nurse belonged to the male population because of its affiliation with the military and religious orders. Early religious orders such as the Benedictine nursing order and St. Alexis were brotherhoods delegated to holy men. The military utilized male nurses during a time of war in the front lines, while female nurses worked in the hospitals. But because of the shortage of male nurses during the civil war, women were recruited to take the place of the men and the emergence of nursing schools dedicated to women started to flourish while diminishing the male role as a nurse. Unfortunately, in today’s society, the role of a nurse is thought to be that of a females job and men who enter the field are considered

What comes to the mind when we think of nurses - Someone who takes care of sick people. Nursing was introduced by Florence Nightangle in the mid of 1800’s and she took an opportunity to train women to care of wounded and sick army during the war. Back then nurses were trained to perform all the housekeeping skills. In 1900’s, there was no set of formal classes for nursing student as compared to today’s higher education. They were assigned to work for 10-12 hours without pay under the supervision of a physician. There is a huge difference between today’s and 1900’s nursing education. Nurses are more trained and skilled in their profession and today’s nursing considered to be more professional than 1900’s nursing.

While there are a lot of responsibilities that nurses have to do most of the nurses being female or males do their work good

Our social justice issue is gender discrimination. Gender Discrimination is a major thing going on in our world today. Therefore, gender discrimination happens in things such as sports, education, health, employment, laws, and in different countries. Gender discrimination was a major thing in the past, and is still a major thing today. Men continually think women are weak, and so women are targeted more in crimes. They also think that women won't stand up for themselves, and women continually let men bring them down because they aren't brave enough. In jobs they believe women won't work, and that women aren't capable enough to do the job, so women end up getting paid less or have to work ridiculously short hours. Today in our century, women are targeted more than men because they are considered weak. Being labeled weak makes women are more vulnerable to at least one form of abuse. 1 in 3 women are abused in some form at a time of their life by a man. Women are targeted for crimes, such as home break-ins, because if they live on their own, they are thought to not be able to defend themselves that well. Women are also being killed all the time. In India, women are burned to death if they can't meet financial requirements, while men aren't. In Egypt, women are killed if they do something considered unclean in their family or outside their family. In South Asia more than 2 million baby girls are killed or abandoned to die because they are considered a financial burden to the

Nursing is universal in the sense that nurses can be found almost in all countries around the world (Henderson, 1978). They are in the hospitals, in school clinics, in the community centres, residential homes and even play major roles in some of the popular soap operas in television. There are even television shows that mainly revolve around nurses and which chronicles what they do at work - both the positive and the negative. It is one of the most visible and easily identifiable occupations as compared for example to other occupations such as engineers, managers or even pharmacists, medical technologists and other health related occupations. This is partly because of what nurses do and most especially how nurses look - with some still