There continues to be huge numbers of nursing vacancies across health and social care and the demand for nursing care continues to grow. However, nursing is one of the least gender diverse occupations and is not representative of the populations we serve. Data is largely collected based on two genders, which creates difficulty establishing how representative nursing is of people elsewhere on the gender spectrum. But we can be certain that there are fewer men working in nursing than woman, for example only 11% of NMC registrants are men.
We tend to think about gender in terms of binary biological sex, however gender is a social construct that people usually describe in terms of femininity and masculinity. People associate femininity with woman and masculinity with men, but gender is not neatly divided along the binary lines of man and woman. This social construction varies across cultures and changes over time.
Gender is part of our identity and is significant, we are interested in it from the point of pregnancy and our gender influences the power, privilege, and opportunity we are afforded. Societies impose distinct sets of expectations based on binary gender which influences how we behave, the roles we are assigned and the power we have. This tends to place men in dominant positions and subordinate women, which may be why we think of women’s issues and equality when we think about gender. But gender is about everyone.
There continues to be a perception that nursing is work men shouldn’t be doing. The belief that kindness and empathy are feminine attributes reinforces a view that nursing is a career choice for women rather than men. Men are expected have ‘masculine’ qualities such as being tough, dominant, unemotional and any deviation from this is judged harshly.
Some studies have indicated that people prefer to be supported with intimate care by someone of the same gender. We tend to ask female patients whether they would prefer a female nurse but don’t tend to ask male patients whether they would prefer a male nurse. Being gay has alleviated suspicion of impropriety when I have supported women with intimate care. This has jarred with me, the fact that I am a professional and not a sexual predator is far more relevant than my sexuality.
However, I appreciate that a minority of men do some despicable things which can cause fear and suspicion especially when people are vulnerable. Therapeutic touch to reassure and comfort people has also presented challenges. When female nursing staff use touch, this can be seen as tenderness and compassion, yet male touch is often sexualised. This takes some navigation, acknowledging power differences between nurse/patient and gender power differences.
When I started my career as a care assistant aged 16, I had to support a woman to get dressed. Bras were a mystery to me; I used a lasso motion to support her with this garment and somehow managed to navigate the clasps. The result, she left her bedroom wearing an upside-down bra as a scarf. Amusing for my colleagues, undignified for her, embarrassing for me. I was fortunate to have a kind colleague who spent time guiding me in the world of female health and care improving my confidence and competence with bras and feminine hygiene products amongst other things. Application of makeup remains an area for development unless clown makeup becomes popular!
In society men tend to occupy more senior positions than woman. Some data suggests that in nursing men occupy a disproportionate number of senior positions despite there being significantly more woman in the professions. The reasons for this are complex but will include cultural and societal unfairness and conscious and unconscious bias in recruitment decisions. When I have been observed being compassionate, empathetic, and kind I have been judged by colleagues and managers as exceptional. A female colleague displaying the same is seen to be acting as expected.
Research has indicated the absence of male role models in nursing as a barrier for men to entering the nursing professions and as creating challenges once in post. My hero Charlie Fairhead inspired my nursing career, but I’m not sure how useful this fictional character has been in shaping my values, attitudes, and behaviour throughout my career. I’ve been lucky to have been around some inspirational nurses all of different genders to myself, so I’m not sure the absence of male nursing role models has hampered me. But you sometimes don’t miss what you have never had. Feeling of isolation has also been documented as an issue for men in the professions.
Gender is a complex concept, when we perpetuate the idea that men shouldn’t have ‘caring’ qualities we deny the opportunity to increase our depleted workforce by restricting the talent pool we recruit from. There are obvious benefits of having a diverse workforce and we need to do more to ensure we are an diverse and inclusive profession.
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