Gender Discrimination in Nursing

Today, most people perceive nursing as a women profession. Men who enter this field have been looked at as outcasts. Many individuals feel that a man does not belong in a "feminine? profession. I believe that statement to be untrue and unfair. The issue of gender discrimination in nursing is the same as other professions. The only difference is nursing is dominated by women, and men are the minority fighting for equality.

Gender or sex discrimination involves treating an employee or a class of employees differently because of gender. Whenever this discrimination affects the terms or conditions of employment, it is illegal. Gender-based disparate treatment of employees with regard to pay, title, position, hours worked and vacation time is generally considered illegal and morally wrong. Just 2.7 percent of the working nurse population in the United States are men. To understand why nursing is dominated by women we have to examine the it?s history. Male nurses may belong, but there?s still not many around. According to the U.S. Labor Department statistics, "6.7 percent of registered nurses were male"(statistics). Gender discrimination in nursing exists because of prejudices male students encounter in the classroom, in the workplace and with the patients. Over the years discrimination of males in the nursing has declined but just like racial discrimination it still exist.

To understand gender discrimination in nursing we must first understand the past. Nursing was found in the 3rd century in ancient Rome and was dominated by men. (Gender) Since the 20th century women have dominated the nursing profession. (Gender) Actually in the 1917 American Nurse Association was founded, and no men where allowed. (Gender) The rule eventually changed in 1930, allowing men the right to be a nurse Classroom prejudice is my first reason of discrimination against male nurses. In an interview I conducted with Derrick Johnson a registered nurse he stated that "In most of "his" classes the curriculum and teaching styles where centered towards women"(Johnson). Johnson goes on to state that " While [he] was in nursing school he could never recall a time he read some thing in one of his textbooks referring to men as nurses"(Johnson). These examples given by Johnson proves that nursing educators fail to acknowledge the needs of male students. I myself am a sophomore in the College of Nursing at the University of Cincinnati. In the year in and a half that I have attended this university I too have experience gender discrimination by professors in nursing.