Non Traditional Gender Roles

Discuss the issues associated with non-traditional gender roles and identity.

Research into men taking up non-traditional gender roles is predominately based on the challenges associated with masculinity (McDowell, 2015). Nursing is inherently a female based profession, deemed appropriate by society for individuals with feminie characteristics. This consequently has potentially devastating effects on males in this profession by making them as though their masculine identity is frequently under threat (Rajacich, Kane, Williston, & Cameron, 2013).

Rajacich and colleagues (2013) sate that male nurses are subjected to stereotypical masculine strategies to display their masculinity. These are further explained as interruption, topic control, avoiding

In Rajacich and colleagues (2013) study 31% of the male nurse participant claimed that that had experienced social isolation in the workplace. Furthermore to this, was a general consensus amongst the participants that there was a lack of role models in the media. Not only are there a lack of role models for male nurses but the textbooks in which are used to support the nursing curriculum are often filled with representations of female nurses(Rajacich et al., 2013). This furthermore reinforces the male’s minority status. It has been stated by Rajacich and colleagues (2013) that 56% of male registered nurses taking part in the survey suggested that they encountered challenges with education process. These challenges consisted of being labelled the muscle strength by female nurses, being perceived as uncompassionate and being the minority (Rajacich et al., 2013). These factors lead male nurses to specialise in more seemingly masculine areas of nursing such as emergency and psychiatric rather than perusing a specialisation such as midwifery (McDowell, 2015).The differentiating factors between male and female nurses encourage the idea that then though they are in the same profession male nurses have different abilities to offer the job over women (Rajacich et al., 2013). Men are described as an untapped and elusive human healthcare

(2013). Lifespan Development (2nd Australasian ed.). Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons.

McDowell, J. (2015). Masculinity and Non‐Traditional occupations: Men 's talk in women 's work. Gender, Work & Organization, 22(3), 273-291. doi:10.1111/gwao.12078

Rajacich, D., Kane, D., Williston, C., & Cameron, S. (2013). If they do call you a nurse, it is always a “Male nurse”: Experiences of men in the nursing profession. Nursing Forum, 48(1), 71-80. doi:10.1111/nuf.12008

Discussion Question

1. Why do males feel the need to discriminate against other males who choose to work in non-traditional job such as nursing?

2. Do you believe that males are underrepresented when it comes to the media and curriculum based textbooks?

3. Is it fair on male nurses that female nurses feel as though the male nurse are there to only do the manly jobs like shift heavy patients?

4. Why do men feel the need to enter more socially accepted areas of ‘masculine nursing’ when they can be just as compassionate and caring as female nurses?

5. What changes to advertising of professional nursing can be implemented to boost the recruitment of male