The readings for tomorrows class made me think a lot more about the health care industry and the role of women within it. They all made me think a little bit more of the history of health and women and also forced me to look a little closer at how women are still being treated by the health care world. The last of the three experts from Leading the Way (Choosing Nursing: A Feminist Odyssey by Jan Oosting Kaminsky) was my favorite. It brought up how women's professions used to be very limited. Basically, they were given the option to chose professional areas which i think mimic the roles they were also associated in the domestic sphere. Areas including teaching, secretarial work, and nursing all quickly became female dominated industries. Because each of these jobs are somehow inherently feminine, men seemed willing to allow women to pursue the work.
The readings also made me think of a few pop culture references. First, I remembered the scene from Meet the Parents where Greg Focker is introduced to his future family members for the first time. He meets a physician and a surgeon and when he offers that he too is in a medical field, the dinner table waits anxiously. When he says he is a male nurse he is met by a roar of laughter followed by awkward silence. For some reason the stereotype of female nurses has remained prevalent. This not only works to constrain and limit the value of the women who perform these jobs (as they are seen as not worthy of a man) but the stereotypes also negatively effect the men who choose to enter these areas.
The reading also reminded me of an episode of Friends when Ross and Rachel look to hire a nanny to look after their infant. In order for Rachel to return to work, she and Ross search endlessly for the right fit. Woman after woman is interviewed when it seems Ross and Rachel are about to give up. Then walks in Sandy. Sandy, played by Freddie Prinze, Jr. plays the kind, caring (and straight) male nurse, or "manny." Rachel instantly thinks he is the right choice for the job and hires him. Sandy proves to be a wonderful caretaker but Ross is unable to accept him due to the fact that he is a man. Again, it seems that the job of a nanny is unfit for a man, and even when they found a man who was great, the stereotype proved so strong that Ross was unable to be comfortable and ended up firing Sandy ... only to replace him with a traditional female nanny a few episodes later ... !
You can also look on the flip side and think about the male nurse in Grey's Anatomy who is currently having a fling with Dr. Miranda Baily. While his position as a nurse usually isnt questioned due to his sex, it has been exploited by the writers numerous times to provide comic scenes. There is also the added level of tensions between him and his female, doctor superior. ... just another interesting example to ponder!
I just thought it was interesting to think about jobs which tend to be traditionally reserved for women and look at what happens and the responses one hears when a man instead performs the job. At least in pop culture (and reality as i postulate) this is a taboo that one can rarely overcome, at least without laughter or awkwardness.
I found that Hillary and I had many same points when it came to this article. Hillary did a great job of giving multiple examples of media takes on this issues. I too wrote about "Meet the Parents" in my post and agree with her point that the stereotype of women being nurses affects not only the women in that profession but the men. Women are constrained to certain professions because of stereotypes like these. Men in the nursing field are also affected. They are not taken as seriously than a woman nurse would be, simply because nursing is seen as "women's work".
ReplyDeleteHer example with "Friends" also interested me. Like in "Meet the Parents" there is a tension with male nurses. Especially when they hire a male nurse, simply because he is male. However, what I did notice in reference to these two examples is that in both the women do not seem to have a problem with male nurses. In "Friends" Rachel does not have a problem hiring a male nurse, whereas Ross does. Also in "Meet the Parents" Ben Stiller's wife has no problem with his profession, but her father and extended male family members are clearly amused by it and do not take him as seriously.
I am not sure why women seem to be less shocked by this, perhaps it is because as women we had to overtake many jobs that were once considered strictly "mens work". Whatever the reason may be, as women we have a duty to try and lessen the stereotypes of jobs be based off of ones gender.
Hillary and Caroline,
ReplyDeleteYou both bring up good points about how it is in our society seen as a taboo, as least the media has portrayed it as such, when men take jobs that are predominately a woman's field. Caroline, you do a good job at explaining why women do not see it as such a big deal that men are becoming nurses because women have more and more recently emerging in predominately male fields. As we have discussed in class, society think we have progressed because more and more women are holding high positions in male dominated jobs, however we often neglect how our "change" is only swaying towards one way. Women are trying in almost every aspect to be more like men. Can we consider this progress if women are just trying to achieve what the men have? Maybe. But, true progress will consist of fluidity between both men and women entering each others work field without it being a taboo. There needs to be conversations about men striving to be more like women. Social change requires participant from both directions.