When Men are the Minority: The Case of Men in Nursing

Abstract

Based on in-depth interviews with a nonprobability sample of male nurses, this study argues that while male nurses do experience the interaction dynamics associated with tokenism as outlined by Kanter (1977a, 1977b), their experience is substantially different from that of female tokens because of socio-cultural factors that interact with group proportions in forming patterns of group interaction. Not only do male nurses react differently to the dynamics of visibility, polarization, and assimilation, but gender-related issues of status and stigma are also important to them. Although Kanter's framework is applicable to male nurses, many of the differences they experience compared to female tokens are attributable to socio-cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity as well as gender-based issues of status rather than group proportions alone. Thus, these findings suggest that socio-cultural factors, interacting with group proportions, strongly influence patterns of interaction among nurses.