“Men also have a very different perspective than women on a lot of things, and it’s a good thing having them in the profession.”

Haha you’re fucking kidding me right?
Read a couple of gender books before you talk.

The only place where I have felt that men where actually welcome in nursing is in my current position. I now work in the corrections medical field. This field is not for everyone. It is challenging and requires a strong willed individual. You like it or hate it. For those who like it corrections can be a challenging field with the rewards of serving an under served population and the safety of a government job where harassment or bias are not tolerated.

I still enjoy working as a nurse and I still recommend it as a career for young men. But when I do I try to give them an accurate picture of what they are getting into.

I have a friend who’s a male and just graduated nursing school, and I really like your article. Perhaps there’s a greater stigma attached to being a male nurse than a female doctor because, with the help of the feminist movements, it’s become more okay for a women to take on a “man’s” role but it’s not okay yet for a man to take on a “woman’s” role.

Even though I don’t want to admit that I think of male nurses differently than female nurses, I probably do. I was definitely one of those girls who was a little embarrassed to have a male nurse, but I hid it well. I was embarrassed because I thought he was cute, and I didn’t want him to see my underwear when he gave me a steroid shot in the hip! Of course, he didn’t because I didn’t have to get undressed.

Female nurses are viewed as analogous to mothers and sisters (or at least female friends), who we get naked in front of all the time. But we never get undressed in front of fathers, brothers, or male friends because society has told us it’s inappropriate and slutty to do so.

I think girls feel more “comfortable” with doctors because, in contrast to male nurses, we’ve been trained to view male doctors as scientific authoritarians. In fact, in the 19th and early 20th centuries we were more or less forced to accept male doctors and shun midwives due to changes in licensing laws (there was also propaganda). With male nurses, we don’t see a nurse as unquestionable and, as for the “male” part, we haven’t been taught to view them in a strictly sterile way, as with male doctors.

By the way, most girls are terrified and feel extra-awkward the first time they go to see a male gynecologist, and many of my friends have said they’d never see a male OB/GYN unless under circumstances beyond her control. So that stigma isn’t for male nurses only.

I’m not sure if what I wrote exactly makes sense, but I believe it’s true.