GRRR - The Gender Bias Continues

[NavyJim58]

Hello there!
I'm a male nurse have been an lpn for ten,and now a Rn for almost 2 years.I like what I do,cant think of doing anything else,even when I get frustrated with the system.About bias, what can we expect when the poefession is primarely female,there are not many adds in magazines with male nurses,and the clothing industry targets mostly female nurses,and is obvious why is done that way.I just go to work try my best and be a team member willing to do teamwork and the bias issue will disappear,it may not be instant,but it does go away.I have found more bias in the street than in the work environment.see how fast a conversation dies when you share at a party that you are a male nurse.I have to use my commercial diving experience to keep the conversation going.I'm proud of being a male nurse.

Hey Virgil RN, good posting......I agree with you about the advertising.....other stuff too....we recently had a big event for nurses day and everything was about the females.......spa day stuff.....I guess guys can participate in spa day but not normally......that and it was not "geared" to males......many times I find in planning males are not considered for events like nurses day and new nurse graduation events.......:luck:

[Ricu]

Hey Virgil RN, good posting......I agree with you about the advertising.....other stuff too....we recently had a big event for nurses day and everything was about the females.......spa day stuff.....I guess guys can participate in spa day but not normally......that and it was not "geared" to males......many times I find in planning males are not considered for events like nurses day and new nurse graduation events.......:luck:

Good points, Jim about Nurse's Week and graduation ceremonies. We've come a distance at my hospital for Nurse's Week. On Monday, the management team serves three complementary meals during regular hours and a breakfast at midnight for the night shift. On Friday, ice cream sundaes. Additionally, the nurses received a backpack picnic set. Last year it was a folding camp chair. Although there are always negative comments, I think these service oriented ideas and gifts are good. Nothing "pink" there. I didn't attend my graduation ceremony because I lived too far from the school but I think it was more focused on the commencement and diploma. I could've ordered a pin didn't since I wouldn't wear it. Is there even a cap ceremony at all, any more? I haven't heard about that in years. If there is such a thing still happening somewhere, I wonder what is done for the male graduate. What have you seen or heard?

R

[SoldierNurse]

Wow, 5 pages and this thread is still going strong! Can't say I face any gender bias these days.

[NavyJim58]

Hey MagRedC5......glad to see your doing ok over there......are you staying out of harm's way?.......the news i'm reading everyday makes me worry about you man......gender bias over there?......you all have to watch each others back.

Ricu, I just attended a pin-ing ceremony on Friday. 85 new RN's graduating from nursing school. No old white cap's in sight. 9 males in the graduating class.

yes, we got the ice cream sunday freebie's also and gifts like umbrella's and jackets and hats and stuff. It's nice of the hospital. The Spa day went over real well with the female nurses and I would recommend they do it again next year. This hospital has less in fighting and more getting along than any place I have worked. Or maybe i'm just easier to get along with now. :39:

[TomB]

I have never really experienced any gender bias. BUT, male docs tend to listen to me more and follow my suggestions more often than my female counterparts.

But if a male doc gets angry with me or he angers me I get over it pretty quickly. My female counterparts tend to drag it on and on and become passive aggressive and talk and talk about it with their peers.

[NavyJim58]

That's a good point TomB....women do seem to hold "grudges"......they seem to take a long time to get over some slight........some men do also but those tend to be the more feminine type men. :39:

[Ricu]

It will be pretty hard for us men to make a case in favor of label free professionalism in the field of nursing if we keep shooting ourselves in the foot with our own stereotyping statements. Wouldn't it be better to promote and to model the behavior we would like to see?

R

[TomB]

Yes it would, but unfortunately there are personality differences between the genders that isn't going away anytime soon. We have to deal with that too. In a perfect world male and female nurses would be the same and there would be no bias. Unfortunately this is not a prefect world.

Instead of trying to make everyone the same we need to learn how to work together. It will require changes on the female and the male sides of the issues.

If I get into an argument with a male colleague, it may be intense, but it's forgotten in short order. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen with the majority of my female colleagues.

Just the facts, man. Sorry if I've offended anyone, but that's the way I see it.

[paxmaster]

Female nurses seem to gravitate towards male nurses and when they do there indoctrination bit it's best not to fight it

[Ricu]

Let me play the devil's advocate for a minute- just for kicks. My own experiences have led me to make the following conclusions. I'm a guy and have also experienced the same things that others have written about here. There are male docs who walk across the unit to talk to me first and I've worked with plenty of bubble-headed women. I'm not sure that these traits can be attributed to women alone or even to a majority of them. Men can be scatterbrained, gossip and hold grudges just as well. Maybe it's growing up and living in a metropolitan area but in the workplace, I see men and women largely behaving the same way; demonstrating very similar characteristics. We know that sex hormones can impact behavior and that there are physiological differences in male and female brain chemistry however, I think there is more in common than a lot of us believe and that the differences we see in behavior are more due to socialization than neurotransmitter function. While there are psychological things that will never be completely understood, we are taught behavior and this instruction has a definite impact on how we conduct ourselves. For example, it's more okay for boys to be angry and act out than girls, girls can cry but boys shouldn't, and so on. There seems to be an evolution taking place in this understanding for which I'm grateful because I think will be liberating to us all.

R