The gender breakdown in nursing

If you are a male nurse or nursing student, perhaps you’ve made this astute observation: you are often the lone male amongst many, many females. From the time of Florence Nightingale until present day, nursing has been long dominated by women. However, times are changing, and nursing is changing along with it. 

For the past few years, efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion have become more commonplace; yet, much of these talks focus on race rather than gender disparities. We know representation matters—not just to buoy the connection and trust that nurses build within their communities, but also to encourage a diverse group of newbie nurses to join the field with us. Improving gender diversity, therefore, should be an important part of increasing inclusion. 

The male nurse’s presence—a breakdown of factors

In general, there are more men in nursing than ever before. In the past 50 years, the percentage of male nurses has increased from 2% to 12%, with a 3% jump just in the past several years. While the upward trend is encouraging, the rate of men entering the nursing profession is still quite slow. The biggest barriers to men becoming nurses are multifactorial.

Representation — As mentioned before, the role of a nurse is stereotypically depicted as female. Many guys don’t consider nursing as a viable career option for this reason alone. While nurses who currently work in the field know there are many options besides hospital bedside care, the image of “nurse” promoted in nursing school brochures, in text-books, and in pop-culture remains decidedly female. 

Rigid gender roles — While the definition of gender norms is slowly becoming more fluid, care-taking roles are generally thought of as lacking masculinity.  What is actually true, however, is that nursing today is a science, plain and simple. Identifying as someone proficient at critical thinking, organization, and collaboration is far more important to be a good nurse, rather than what gender one identifies as. 

Promoting gender diversity

Addressing stereotypes lies at the heart of inclusion; the responsibility to make this shift falls on us all. From guidance counselors who steer high-school age males away from considering nursing roles to professors who discourage male nursing students from observing and participating in certain clinical experiences—like labor and delivery, for example—checking our own biases by examining their root cause is essential to changing this behavior. 

One way young men interested in healthcare may discover nursing is by bringing nurses before them while they’re still actively exploring their post-high-school options. Encouraging nurses from diverse gender backgrounds to discuss how broad of a field nursing really is by talking about their experiences as part of a minority group is one way to achieve that reach. The more detailed, the better!

For example, rather than saying, “I take care of patients during surgery,” a male operative nurse could paint a picture of monitoring a patient’s vitals and blood gasses, collaborating with the surgeon and anesthesia team, and showcasing the range of surgical instruments that need to be organized and made ready for use. Focusing on the science and teamwork of patient care would help to dispel some of the myths of a nurse who young men may otherwise view as a pillow-fluffer. 

Making space for gender fluidity

Now is the time to step into the “ya’ll know it’s 2022, right?” portion of this blog. Which is to say, no discussion of the gender breakdown in nursing would be complete without mentioning the advancement of society’s understanding (and acceptance) of gender construction on the whole.  

Younger generations tend to view the existence of both gender fluidity and gender nonconformity as common knowledge; but nursing is currently dominated by white, older women, many of whom may still have to Google the term ‘non-binary’ to get an accurate idea of what that term legitimately means ( apart from whatever political sphere they ascribe to). 

(For the purposes of accuracy, non-binary as defined by the National Center for Transgender Equality describes “people who don't identify with any gender. Some people's gender changes over time.…”)

Our understanding of gender constructs are thankfully—albeit slowly—changing. Those who live authentically in their transgender, non-binary, and gender-fluid skin are valid challenges to the way gender identity has traditionally been cultured within our society.

Which is to say—male OR female. The spectrum of gender invites us all to consider: is gender something that is on you, or in you? First person accounts are just one effective way that these experiences are distilled down for us all to relate to—and that includes the non-binary nurse experience.  

As stated above, representation matters. We have the honor of taking care of all patients from varied backgrounds. Not only do we owe our patients the dignity of culturally competent care, we owe that same level of inclusion to our nursing colleagues, no matter their gender. 

Anyone paying attention to current events today can see the misguided political plays for power disguised as restrictions on LGBTQIA+ folks. We’ve taken on those subjects here and here, in case you need a refresher.

Just as we stand up for and beside these vulnerable populations when they present to us as patients needing our advocacy, so do we also have the same opportunity to promote inclusion and acceptance for the gender-spectrum nurses working alongside us. 

From the future nurses who are now graduating to the seasoned nurses with decades of experience, we all need to shoulder the responsibility when it comes to advocating, supporting, and including a range of genders in healthcare.

There’s a reason the acronym LGBTQIA+ is ever-expanding, and gender-questioning folks often report feeling invisible. We, as caretakers of the human race, see firsthand how differently each one of us experiences the world. It’s time for the nursing profession to reflect that diversity as well.