Half Question/Half Pet Peeve

JoseQuinones · Jan 18, 2014

I hear this a lot. In our clinical rotations, the girls wear cute uniforms with a little ruffles and pink or blue stethoscopes, but us guys wear serious-looking white uniforms with lab jackets and black stethoscopes (these are set by the hospital, not the school). When I asked the nurse supervisor at one hospital why this might be, she told me, "Because we don't want families mistaking the girls for doctors!" Aaaaaaaaaand . . . what about the guys? I held my tongue but wondered how she could be so biased against her own sex.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jan 18, 2014

This is a sincere question and not an intention to flame.
Why are we seeing threads (yes, multiple) from male pre-nursing or pre-CNA students asking (in essence) how many advantages & benefits they will attain simply because they are of the male gender? These posts commonly carry an "what am I entitled to?" sentiment that just puts me over the edge.
Seriously, is it "out there" that all male applicants to an historically female profession can pretty much count on magical admission rates to school and rapid promotion rates while employed?
Adding to my distress at this trend are the nurses who respond positively to these threads:
"Yes, our elderly patients really have a higher respect for male CNA's/nurses. They always think they're doctors!"
"Yes! We can use you on the Lift Team!"
"Yes, we like working with male nurses more than we like working with female nurses because they don't gossip!"
"All the male nurses in my unit get promoted quickly to management."
I guess I've pretty much answered my own question. If we (current nurses) are encouraging male nursing applicants by promoting how "special" they will be, it's no wonder that the word is out there that the nursing field is ripe for male exploitation.
Which essentially.........depresses me.

It depresses me, too. It is shocking to me how many misogynists there are on allnurses.com, and how many of them are women. And of course they don't believe they could possibly be misogynists BECAUSE they are women. Yet we still see whole threads about how the poster would rather work with men than with women because "everyone knows that women are caddy, backstabbing gossips." (Yes, I know it's "catty." The majority of posters who use the word don't seem to.)

Sadly, some men do seem to get promoted to management in an undeserved hurry. Sadly, some men do seem to come on board with higher starting pay than a woman with equal or more experience and/or equal or better education. It's happened in my own household.

But of all of the inequities, this attitude of entitlement frosts me the most. We've had to see this from males in most professions all of our lives; now we're seeing it in OUR profession -- one of the few female-dominated professions.

LithEruiel · Jan 18, 2014

Hmm that is slightly different I think. There are 3 males in our class of 90 so we stick out like sore thumbs, everyone knows who we are. An election for something kind of silly like class president is always going to be a popularity contest, so if I decide to stand and everyone knows me then I am going to get a percentage of 100% where as a female who may still be highly popular but will only get a percentage of the people that know of her vote for her.

It just seemed to me that the women didn't think the other women were fit to be leaders. Some of them had great ideas for fundraisers and the guy that got elected did pretty much nothing. We only had 35ish in our class so everyone knew everyone.

wooh, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2014

But women are catty and backstabbing!!! Men are soooooo much better to work with!! Of course they should get special treatment!

Ugh, frosts my turds too...

jbw6502 · Jan 18, 2014

I am a male nurse and have been for 22 years. I was an Lpn for 20 years, received my AAS in Nursing in 2012, and my BSN in 2013. While most of my career has been working in LTC I have worked in several local hospitals and have seen how females treat each other in the hospitals and it's a shame. As a matter of fact that's why I have worked in LTC to this day. Having just completed my BSN I want to work in ICU to get experience but I dread the thought of working with women who spend their time backstabbing their co-workers and gossiping about other female co-workers. I have never had promotions or received higher wages based on my gender, honestly at my current job I get paid less than some of my female colleagues even though I have more experience and a higher degree.

futureeastcoastNP · Jan 18, 2014

It's unfair and obviously sex/gender discrimination has no place in the workplace or anywhere else. Women and men can do equally well in all professions.

That being said, I do know that some schools have higher admit rates for men as there are less male applicants. I had an admission director at a highly ranked BSN program admit that they have a 90+% male acceptance rate despite having an overall acceptance rate of less than 20%. I'm not sure if that's exactly wrong - they want a diverse class and if only a few men apply they have no choice. No different than affirmative action for some races - it helps create a diversity.

MrChicagoRN, RN · Jan 19, 2014

Males bring a little diversity to a female dominated profession. Diversity, usually a good thing, and almost always draws a comment. It was only a few decades ago when there earnest discussions about the positive effects of creating more female doctors and police officers ( once known as policemen)!

though generally (but not always), I have never been a member of The Good Ole Girls club, and can't point to any free entitlements.

middleager · Jan 19, 2014

If a male made such a comment in business or other area's it would automatically be labeled sexist and attacked with vigot. There was a recent article about lowering the physical requirements for female military members to qualify for combat assignements. The need for diversity was the battle cry justifying lowering it for females. There have been numerous efforts to increase females in numerous professions for the sake of diversity. Yet the perception of the same for males in a profession so lacking of gender diversity is met with this kind of commentary because males cannot be victims of discrimination only females can? The effort to create diversity is only valued for females? While you can try to reduce it to only those males who feel entitled, would the same attempt be accepted for females? There has been only two cases legally allowing discrimination against hiring a gender in the medical profession, both against males in the OB. If it is healthy to do things to encourage diversity for females, why is this an issue in a profession that is so important, so personal, and so lacking of gender diversity? The obvious answer is because it possibly might favor males. Sexism is not bounded by who it is against.

SWM2009 · Jan 19, 2014

The idea that women have somehow cornered the market in behaving badly at work infuriates me. Are men somehow above this "catty, backstabbing behavior" simply because they are men? I don't believe that.

SWM2009 · Jan 19, 2014

If a male made such a comment in business or other area's it would automatically be labeled sexist and attacked with vigot. There was a recent article about lowering the physical requirements for female military members to qualify for combat assignements. The need for diversity was the battle cry justifying lowering it for females. There have been numerous efforts to increase females in numerous professions for the sake of diversity. Yet the perception of the same for males in a profession so lacking of gender diversity is met with this kind of commentary because males cannot be victims of discrimination only females can? The effort to create diversity is only valued for females? While you can try to reduce it to only those males who feel entitled, would the same attempt be accepted for females? There has been only two cases legally allowing discrimination against hiring a gender in the medical profession, both against males in the OB. If it is healthy to do things to encourage diversity for females, why is this an issue in a profession that is so important, so personal, and so lacking of gender diversity? The obvious answer is because it possibly might favor males. Sexism is not bounded by who it is against.

I don't think the OP was against diversity in nursing or any other profession nor was she advocating sexism against male nurses.

roser13, ASN, RN · Jan 19, 2014

I don't think the OP was against diversity in nursing or any other profession nor was she advocating sexism against male nurses.

You are correct. My only purpose in posting is to call out those males who feel comfortable claiming a special distinction in nursing solely due to their gender.

Plus, I don't know what "vigot" is.

"If a male made such a comment in business or other area's it would automatically be labeled sexist and attacked with vigot. "

middleager · Jan 19, 2014

SWM2009, I don't think the OP is against diversity nor advocating sexism. I do however stand that if this post were a male making the same comments about females in a male dominated profession, would the discussion be about the sense of entitlement of the women or about the sexist mentality blaming the females? If you took the post and changed the genders would the conversation be the same? If we used the example of the military lowering the bar for females and said I am sick of those females who think they are entitled to lower requirements, would the discussion be about "those" women or the comment and sexism. Sexism does not require intent or even knowledge of committing it. Otherwise good people have committed racism, sexism, and other offenses without even realizing it. Just as professions that were nearly completely male dominated needed effort to change which could have just as easily have been seen as an attitude of entitlement, one has to be willing to accept some of the same effort in a female dominated profession.