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Talion
I agree that sexism in general enters into the equation pretty heavily. These attitudes are very deeply ingrained; as I've said in one of my blog entries the other day, changes in the law don't translate into changes in people's hearts. For that matter, we even call breast-feeding "nursing," and men can't breast-feed. The term itself connotes nurturance for this reason. We have this instinctive "thing" that suggests it's about food and nurturing.
There used to be a whole Catholic men's religious order - the Alexian Brothers - which had nursing as its vocation. They used to run a hospital in Chicago's far northern suburbs - a hospital which still bears the name of the order, although I don't think the Alexian Brothers actually staff the inpatient floors anymore. My mother went out of her way to mention this religious order regularly so I didn't develop such sexist notions about "men shouldn't be nurses." It's just that vast personal experience with the health-care system suggests otherwise - that the profession is a pink-collar ghetto.
posted by
kidnykid
on December 29, 2006 at 1:40 PM
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God bless you.
posted by
afzal50
on December 29, 2006 at 8:45 AM
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kidnykid
More men don't enter the field of nursing because there's the misconception it's strictly for women. No other job is as strongly identified by gender or so deeply ingrained in our society's subconsciousness. (Flight attendant/stewardess runs a distant second.) The word nurse even sounds feminine. The few men who entered the field were even called male nurses, attempting to make it more macho and thus acceptable. This is possibly the result of sexism in general and the health care industry in particular, but the great rift between men and women and society's attitudes towards gender roles factor heavily into it as well.
posted by
Talion
on December 29, 2006 at 6:57 AM
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