Abstract
Being a female-concentrated job, nursing has forgotten the place of men within the profession despite their contribution since time immemorial. The heightened efforts of Florence Nightingale to transform nursing into a respectable female occupation denied men the opportunity to enter this domain. Despite their growing representation, they are still a minority in nursing in countries across the globe. When the occupational roles do not conform to the gender-appropriate roles prescribed by the society, the ‘male’ nurses’ prestige and self-esteem are at risk since others recognize them neither as true nurses nor as real men. Drawing majorly from secondary sources and data gathered from an anthropological study of in-home care providers in the South Indian state of Kerala, this paper on the predicament of men in nursing throws light on the ‘spoiled identity’ they carry; the work stress, gender stereotyping, stigma and discrimination they encounter by always being suspected and their very identity and sexual orientation questioned. A note on the strategies employed by them to overcome the problems is also within the purview of this paper.
Highlights
Being a female-concentrated job, nursing has forgotten the place of men within the profession despite their contribution since time immemorial
Nursing, perceived to be a profession meant for women and is a field that largely retains the characteristic of female domination across the globe
Any discussion on the profession of nursing would remain incomplete without a mention of the efforts of Florence Nightingale whose brainchild was to transform nursing into a respectable female occupation
Summary
Being a female-concentrated job, nursing has forgotten the place of men within the profession despite their contribution since time immemorial. The heightened efforts of Florence Nightingale to transform nursing into a respectable female occupation denied men the opportunity to enter this domain. Despite their growing representation, they are still a minority in nursing in countries across the globe. Any discussion on the profession of nursing would remain incomplete without a mention of the efforts of Florence Nightingale whose brainchild was to transform nursing into a respectable female occupation. Many scholars have similar findings: Men have played a dominant role in organized nursing dating back to 330 A.D. in the Byzantine Empire. Hospitals were one of the major institutions where nursing emerged as a separate occupation, primarily for MCS – Masculinities and Social Change, 313
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