Men in nursing?

[Reacher_]

Why don't we see more initiatives, encouragement, or destigmatization for men to get into more female-dominated professions, for example nursing, as much as we see for women to get into more male-dominated profession, like the STEM professions?

[SueShe]

It is not easy to change the way people think and behave. It took almost a century for women to be ALLOWED to become pilots for instance. I am not even talking about qualifications but simply about the male predominance in certain professions and their reluctance to accept women in a male dominated profession.

I am for equality in treatment and job opportunities. However, I wonder if men would accept to be treated as equals of women in healthcare jobs and be paid 20-30% less for the same work as it happens almost everywhere else. Would men be ready to accept those jobs at the rate women are paid or would they want a "bonus" of 20% to perform the same tasks?

[Reacher_]

To give you a bit of background, I am not advocating for more men in nursing.

I know there will be bias (for both genders really). You mentioned that it took some time for women to be integrated into the piloting profession. I believe this is due to some collective effort to help establish more women in this profession. There were also predominantely female professions back in the days. Why wasn't there a big push to get more men into those roles?

Your second paragraph doesn't really have a basis because I could use the same argument, for example, to justify why there aren't "enough" women in STEM.

[Reacher_]

To give the impression that men wouldn't want to get into the profession because they don't want to be seen as equals with women and they want more in terms of pay than their counterparts doesn't seem appealling. Don't you think that's double-standard?

[SueShe]

in a way, yes, there are double standards but also, healthcare jobs are somewhat "snobbed" by males because it is probably to menial. Also, I believe that, just like males being kindergarten teachers or daycare professionals, it is seen by part of the population as a potentially "dangerous" jobs because of the gender issue and what is appropriate for a male to see and not and how to handle children.

I believe that there is a stigmatization issue there.

[Reacher_]

I don't think menial has anything to do with it. There are more menial jobs that. men do that collective women groups don't even bother to talk about. It's more of an appropriation matter.

Now I could make the same argument for such male-dominated jobs not being appropriate for women, due to it's tedious, sometimes labourous, and dangerous nature. Which brings us back to the question, why would there be more destigmatization and such for women to get into the male-dominated profesisons and not vice-versa?

[Reacher_]

... Relative to the examples you gave?

[ArrowheadSW]

In a lot of areas in the US, it is less competitive for a man to get into a nursing program. Not saying that it is "easy". Just less competitive. I think they recognize that male nurses are fewer and they try to draw more in.

[molonski2]

This certainly happens in India , and I think you make a very good suggestion , in school teaching too , male numbers have drastically dropped off.

[Reacher_]

So much for the feminist movements.

[genericname85]

well cause our leaders are not very interested in more offspring. they wanna reach sustainability by reducing global populations. cause the planet is already not providing enough ressources for our needs.

[Anonymous]

Maybe cause females are naturally better at it and maybe men should stick to jobs in which they are naturally better (Say combat military or construction)

[boobliker]

good job for gay men, but we need more nurses

[In_Trance]

Are you a nurse?