Gendered careers in nursing

Citation

Fielden, S. and Burke, R.J. (2014), "Gendered careers in nursing", Gender in Management, Vol. 29 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-07-2013-0074

Gendered careers in nursing

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Gender in Management: An International Journal, Volume 29, Issue 2

Globally women make up 52 per cent of the workforce, yet they continue to experience occupational segregation and women are still found predominantly in caring and nurturing positions (United Nations, 2010). Nursing is no exception, with women comprising over 75 per cent of the health care services workforce worldwide (World Health Organization (WHO, 2008)). In the UK, 89.24 per cent of nurses are women (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2007), whereas in the USA it is 91.4 per cent (US Department of Health, 2008), in Canada 94.6 per cent (Canadian Nurses Association, 2004) and in Russia and Denmark almost all nurses are female (WHO, 2008).

Ironically, in many countries men have been nurses for centuries. For example, the first nurses were the Parabolani, who were the members of a Christian brotherhood who in the Early Church voluntarily undertook the care of the sick in Alexandria during the plague (Pallen and Wynne, 1929). In the American civil war, both the confederate and union armies had men serving as nurses, yet were subsequently excluded from nursing in the military in 1901 when the US Army Nurse Corps was formed (Quan, 2012).

The number of men entering the nursing profession remains low and, although the number of men entering the nursing profession rise slightly each year, little real progress has been made over the last few decades despite targeted recruitment efforts (Vere-Jones, 2008). It has been argued that men are discouraged by the feminised nature of the job (Stott, 2007), which seems to be supported by the fact that in the US forces 30 per cent of nurses are men (Quan, 2012). Occupational segregation within nursing further supports this perspective. In the UK over a third of nurses working in mental health are men and are found in the highest concentrations in the more secure units, e.g. Broadmoor which has been home to some of the UK’s most notorious criminals. These institutions were originally run by the prison service and are preferred by men as the roles, activities and culture encourage them to express their masculinity (Holyoake, 2002). Other specialities with high proportions of men are A&E, theatre and intensive care; all of which are viewed as macho areas of the health services (Department of Health, 2006; Vere-Jones, 2008).

Despite the significant predominance of women nurses, they still tend to be concentrated in lower-status occupations and excluded from managerial and decision making positions. According the Royal College of Nursing (RCN, 2006, 2007), women are largely absent in most of the arenas of health policy formation, programme design, planning, implementation and evaluation (RCN, 2007). Furthermore, men are over represented in senior nursing posts and achieve promotion more quickly than women (RCN, 2006). The reasons for this include traditional gender roles, the need for career breaks, part-time work, and a lack of geographical mobility (Bilmoria and Piderit, 2007; Burke and Nelson, 2002; Davidson and Burke, 2004; EHRC, 2007). This glass ceiling can have implications for both the recruitment and retention of women nurses and, with the exception of the Russian federation, results in a marked differences in average wages (WHO, 2008).

This special issue explores the career experiences of men and women in nursing. The first paper by Peter Kellett and David Gregory, “Patriarchal paradox: gender performance and men’s nursing careers”, focuses on the careers of men in nursing, drawing on the literature to explain the lack of men in nursing. It begins with the entry of men into the profession and considers the challenges and barriers they face from their minority status. Within this context the authors discuss the contradictions and tensions in the lives of men in nursing, and the impact of the patriarchal paradox on the career trajectory of those men. The second paper “Correlates of career priority and family priority among hospital-based nursing staff,” by Ronald J. Burke and Parbudyal Singh, looks at the difference in experiences of nurses who place great emphasis on their careers compared to those whose emphasis is on family priorities. The sample is drawn from both men and women nurses but, as one would expect, the sample is almost all female. Even so the findings clearly show that not all women in nursing have the same priorities and cannot be considered a homogeneous group. The final paper by Helen M. Woolnough and Sandra Lesley Fielden, “The impact of a career development and mentoring programme on female mental health nurses: a longitudinal, qualitative study”, picks up on those women in nursing that are career focused. The paper presents the findings of a mentoring programme designed to break the glass ceiling and develop women’s career in nursing. It also considers the career and personal development outcomes from such a programme.

We would like to thank all of the authors for their hard work and providing such an interesting insight into the career and experiences of both men and women in nursing.

Sandra Fielden, Ronald J. Burke
Guest Editors

References

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