Nursing: From Female-Dominated to Gender-Neutral Profession - Essay Sample

Introduction

Over the years, the nursing profession has mainly been associated with the female gender. The job has risen from that of care provision to an acknowledged occupation with more dignified duties. Moreover, different researches depict that women are the majority in the nursing profession than men as they tend to understand the patients more through their soft hearts. However, some studies differ on patient care by a specific gender, indicating that satisfaction of patients does not rely on the gender of the nurse but rather their services. Women around the nation are diverging into other medical careers that, in the eyes of the world are deemed as a man's cup of tea. The paper, therefore, is premised on a discussion regarding gender differences in the nursing career, looking into the history, statistics, and stereotypes between gender roles in the nursing field around the nation.

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History of Nursing Gender Differences

Historically, nursing started between the fourth and fifth centuries, where it was only for the male gender for a large part of man's history. In the Middle Ages, the responsibility of treating and taking care of the wounded soldiers was considered as military orders and religious deities. In the USA, before the Civil war, the duties of the sick were for the slaves which consisted of both male and female roles. After the war ended, women became interested in medicine and nursing.

Nursing in the USA changed from being male-dominated to the female field at a time of the formation of the Army Nurse Corps, which ushered in the 19th century (Hill et al., 2015). The First World War in Europe acted as the force behind women's interest in the nursing field. Red Cross, which was an uprising women's liberation, was considered as one of the major powers in the growth of both scientific and professional development in the nursing fraternity. Health care then became part of a woman's activity, which explains why women nurses get mostly stuffed within organizations than men (Liminana-Gras et al., 2013).

Stereotypes in Nursing

There are two types of care; physical care, which incorporates hygiene and mobilization, and emotional care, which is associated with the psychological differences of patients. Study proves that male nurses are more comfortable in giving physical care, whereas women are more into emotional care. Thus, an increase in image stereotypes is majorly due to the rise in the female gender in the nursing profession.

In countries like Spain, the nursing profession has always got swayed by the division in gender roles. Up to date, social perceptions echo to the care of a female nurse in Spain. Many vie the nursing career as a female-oriented one. Tsouroufli et al. (2011) model on gender stereotypes explains the traits related to nursing. The essence to sieve between feminine and masculine duties get termed as a usual psychological process. Tsouroufli et al. (2011) further point to the tendency of people placing groups into categories based on gender stereotypes.

Even though women are dominant in nursing professions, men are getting better posts considering that they are the minority. Women nurses, on the other hand, manifest higher stress levels as a result of dealing more emotionally with their patients as compared to men. Women nurses also exhibit a depreciation on their work due to various factors such as fewer recognitions from male workers and doctors, lack of balance between their household and work schedules, and conflicts between them and their colleagues (Riska & Novelskaite, 2008). Nevertheless, education and institutions have, in years, put in place measure as an obstacle to men's access to nursing courses due to most women's refusal of their care.

Moreover, most specialized health centers and prenatal care units have the lowest number of male nurses significantly. Male nurses get excluded when it comes to informal hiring processes. Also, they are viewed as "muscles" by female nurses who consider them as individuals hired to move around things or people (Liminana-Gras et al., 2013). Male nurses have, hence, formulated a defense strategy by employing a female nurse when dealing with a patient or using humor.

Women in recent research take up lateral moves in their careers as men take linear. Female nurses are said to spend most of their time in their job before they think of training for other courses, which is referred to as the certificate gathered syndrome. Men, on the other hand, take up their careers at the same time considering other options. Findings indicate that a minority of males in nursing is brought about by the market of structural labor, which tends to be in favor of men more than women (Hill et al., 2015)

Children's career breaks are one of the most commonly stated reasons as to the decreased population of men in the nursing field. The children's career break is the period taken by both genders to acquire a distinct status in nursing. In the USA and Canada, the labor market gets distinguished by unchartered personnel, and unskilled individual's payments are significantly low. In the USA, nursing as a field gets termed as for the less skilled (Riska & Novelskaite, 2008). Hence, we find that a vast population of men find it difficult to advance in nursing than women.

Several stereotypes need to get addressed, such as most men branding the traits of caring and submission to women. Moreover, some men fear to join nursing with the fear that they will get branded as low-class people. In most societies, men are viewed as loud and aggressive, making it impossible for some men to even consider the nursing field with the fear of the eyes of the community. Study shows that 94% of the nurses in the USA and Canada are women (Liminana-Gras et al., 2013). The dominance in this field by women is more due to the society's beliefs that nursing is a woman's profession.

The depicted perception has not helped in driving men to the nursing profession. Another opinion that has seen men's numbers decreased in the nursing profession is that nurses get poorly paid, making the career less attractive for men. Nursing relationships are termed as women-oriented such that individual professionals relate to the medical sector with the male gender and nursing sector to females. Studies indicate to feminize careers to having less power and also in economic terms have not gotten valued positively (Aranda et al., 2015). Patriarchal culture's perceptions have also affected patients, as well as nurses, lowered self-esteem. Moreover, most individuals are deemed to self-author their identity by employing self-drawing on the norms, values, and language.

The concept of self-authoring brings about a sense of agency and an opportunity for self-determination. Tsouroufli et al. (2018) further elaborate that individuals with this identity possess the power to affect change around social worlds. Identity may well get termed as a procedure of becoming and regularly shaping and being brought into shape by the universe: figured world's theory, terms gender as an entity of identification which correlates to post-structuralism feminism. Culture and the ways of identification are dominant from this perspective. Interaction between identity and society is essential.

Statistics

Changes to gender equality that have formed in recent years have proved to alter the perceptions of most in pursuing nursing positively. The study has shown that more men have developed the desire for the nursing profession more so in Spain and other western communities (Aranda et al., 2015). For instance, Lithuania medical professions get faced with adequate self-reliance for a period of fifty years from the year 1940- 1990. Since attaining its political and economic freedom independence, the state has been on the rise to revolutionize the health care sector.

Lithuania is a forefront state that has most of its physicians as female. Research conducted on such a feminized gender professional to determine the view on a good physician male or female gender-based brought back mixed results (Aranda et al., 2015). However, recent findings indicate that the know-how and the ethos of a professional get marked by gender and are neutral. To shed more light on professional traits expected and the gender dynamics in the field of medicine have to be tackled. In medicine, gender-specific tasks mechanisms are casting and inclusion.

Riska & Novelskaite (2008) identifies that for a woman to be successful in the surgical field, they must be innovative in understanding the needs of being a surgeon, or they must pen out a new space for themselves. In most learning institutions, the number of women taking up postgraduate surgical courses has increased, with the percentage in the UK being 58% (Hill et al., 2015). As women begin progression in the medical field, professional identities get formed within them, which is in correlation to the surgical area. Despite states doing away with legal walls to women's advancement in surgical careers, women continue to have low figures in the so-called male domains (Aranda et al., 2015).

The problem has continued as there is less or no discussions on feminine inclusivity in male domains where identities are mostly masculine oriented. The hardships women undergo in undertaking surgical professions are highlighted in a study carried out where some women are marked out due to their gender. Most women in this field, thus, are expected to have male masculinity.

Conclusion

The gender in a profession does not count as long as the knowledge acquired in the teaching institutions adds and affirms their values. People should not only strive to instill skills in practitioners but rather add value. Practitioners should also not only possess the skills but rather maximize those skills by employing them appropriately. Students and doctors should be encouraged to fathom the essence of achieving the same goals but using varying methods. Therefore, practitioners must acquire the necessary skills and learn how to deploy them. Nonetheless, men in the nursing profession get viewed as an outcast as most people believe that men particularly, do not belong to a dominant feminine job. Women, on the other hand, have proven them wrong as most of them currently specialize in male medical fields that were once deemed impossible for them. Thus, one cannot say that there is gender inequality in nursing as it is always the wish of a person to become a nurse or a physician, depending on the skills and quality of services they will deliver.

References

Aranda, M., Castillo-Mayen, M. D. R., & Montes-Berges, B. (2015). Has the traditional social perception of nurses changed? Attribution of stereotypes and gender roles. Accion Psicologica, 12(1), 103-112. Retrieved from https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/3440/344041426010.pdf

Hill, E., Solomon, Y., Dornan, T., & Stalmeijer, R. (2015). 'You become a man in a man's world': is there discursive space for women in surgery?. Medical education, 49(12), 1207-1218. Doi: 10.1111/medu.12818

Liminana-Gras, R. M., Sanchez-Lopez, M. P., Roman, A. I. S. S. & Corbalan-Berna, F. J. (2013). Health and gender in female-dominated occupations: the case of male nurses. The Journal of Men's Studies, 21(2), 135-148. Doi: 10.3149/jms.2102.135

Riska, E., & Novelskaite, A. (2008). Gendered careers in post-Soviet society: Views on professional qualifications in Surgery and Pediatrics. Gender Issues, 25(4), 229. Doi: 10.1007/s12147-008-9063-7

Tsouroufli, M., Rees, C. E., Monrouxe, L. V., & Sundaram, V. (2011). Gender, identities, and intersectionality in medical education research. Medical Education, 45(3), 213-216. Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03908.x