Challenges Faced By Men Working in Female-Dominated Occupations

Student Name Course Instructor Date Challenges Faced By Men Working in Female Dominated Occupations There have been significant efforts to achieve gender diversity at the work place in the United States. There are ongoing initiatives aimed at promoting fair representation of the male and female genders in different fields, for example, that have been traditionally dominated by women such as nursing, education and social work. Overall, gender diversity will result in increased financial performance for the participating companies and in addition it will give the companies better reputation, result in a broader customer base, improve decision making with diversity of ideas and will lead to better management styles. More and more men are getting into pink collar jobs because the chances of career mobility and promotion to management positions in these female dominated fields are high and also because they have more job security in pink collar jobs as opposed to blue collar jobs. However, they face stigmatization and a myriad of challenges. Hence, the paper will examine the challenges faced by men in these female-dominated professions while taking into consideration aspects such as job security, job satisfaction and socio cultural factors. Professional fields such as nursing and social work have been dominated by the female gender over the recent past but efforts to curb social injustices and gender inequalities have seen men take up these roles. Reports from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate “gender segregation among occupations in the United States is lessening to a small degree”. These men experience the benefit of a “glass escalator” characterized by their rapid career growths in these fields as compared to their female counterparts. They get promoted to managerial positions mainly because despite these professions being highly female dominated their hierarchical structures has men at the very top who make and influence decisions and as a result biasedly select their male counterparts for the jobs. Socio cultural factors also play a significant part in the unjust promotion of men in these fields. The place for women in most societies is still perceived to be at home and in the kitchen regardless of their professional qualifications or skill sets. Also, men in the society are seen as born leaders hence the need to have a man at the helm of all institutions and organisations. However, the case is not the same for women trying to pursue their careers in male dominated fields like engineering as they are hampered by the “glass ceiling phenomena”. The unseen and unbreakable barrier prevents women from rising to top level positions as they are perceived not to be good or strong enough (Williams 253-267). Rosa Liminana and other scholars in an article analyze the case of male nurses in a female dominated occupation. They examined the impact that the nursing duties and responsibilities will have on the health’s of the male nurses using sociodemographic questionnaires, self-perceived job satisfaction questionnaires and the conformity to gender norms questionnaires. The article mentions that before the Civil War, the nursing profession was primarily being performed and dominated by the men. It states: In the United States, prior to the civil war, those in charge of looking after the sick were slaves, both men and women. When the war ended, women began to take an interest in medicine and nursing and when the Army Nurse Corps was established at the beginning of the nineteenth century military nursing changed in the US from being predominantly male to exclusively female (Limiñana-Gras et al. 137). Since then, health care has been considered as a “female activity” majorly because of the caring nature that is perceived to be a woman’s strength and hence has made it very challenging for men to penetrate into the nursing field. It is assumed that men are only capable of providing the physical part of care that entails hygiene and mobilization and are incapable of providing emotional care to the patients which involves showing empathy and being supportive. It is important to incorporate both the two forms of care when providing quality health care to the patients. Men have faced obstacles from educational and professional institutions in their efforts to enter the nursing field. Colleges that offer the nursing course focus more on women and the same case applies to health care facilities when it comes to employment. There have also been cases of female patients rejecting to be attended to by male nurses especially in matters regarding intimate hygienic care. The article states “It is specialist clinics providing women’s healthcare such as obstetrics and pre natal care that have the lowest number of male nurses. They are excluded through the informal hiring networks” (Limiñana-Gras et al. 139). The male nurses also face prejudice from their female counterparts who see them as “mere muscle” and often misuse them to move things around. Socio cultural and image stereotypes is another major challenge facing the male nurses. They are stigmatized by the society for engaging in a feminized profession and hence are considered weak and lazy. The society demands that they use their masculinity in blue collar jobs that would benefit from their strength as opposed to the pink collar jobs such as nursing that involve a lot of caring and empathy. The article notes “Thus traditional masculinity is standing in the way of working class men. The stigma affects their self-esteem and makes them easy targets for unintentional mistakes in their jobs”. Nonetheless, the article established f...