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Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree

nytimes.com

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Re: Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree

#4

I looked for the part about "Their Wives Agree" and didn't find it. What did I miss?

"Ofer Sharone, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has studied middle-aged white-collar professionals who have lost their jobs. He found that some men who might have been willing to consider lower-paid jobs in typically feminine fields encountered resistance from their wives, who urged them to keep looking.

“Marriages have more problems when the man is unemployed than the woman,” Professor Sharone said. “What does it mean for a man to take a low-paying job that’s typically associated with women? What kind of price will they pay with their friends, their lives, their wives, compared to unemployment?”

Re: Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree

#5
Someone with a shallow familiarity with feminism like myself won't find anything surprising here. That patriarchy (which is a set of commonly held attitudes) disadvantages men as well as women is well understood. That many women have patriarchal attitudes is also well understood.

However, don't assume that these things are fixed. Highly feminine occupations such as film editor and software engineer have long since "flipped" to being male-dominated professions. Nursing could easily be next.

Or, you know, we could all grow up as a society but I'm seeing no evidence that this is likely to happen.

Re: Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree

#6
We should rename the profession. "Nurse" is gendered, but also poorly captures the responsibilities of the modern nursing profession.

It is batshit crazy that our first line of medical care in the US is medical doctors. For 80% of what ordinary people see doctors for, Nurse Practitioners are superior to doctors: they're more available, can spend more time with patients, and can more easily escalate cases to doctors or specialists than the patients themselves can.

What would make a lot of sense to me would be to rename "Nurse Practitioners" to "Associate Doctors".

Re: Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree

#7
post #6

We should rename the profession. "Nurse" is gendered, but also poorly captures the responsibilities of the modern nursing profession. It is batshit crazy that our first line of medical care in the US is medical doctors. For 80% of what ordinary people see doctors for, Nurse Practitioners are superior to doctors: they're more available, can spend more time with patients, and can more easily escalate cases to doctors o…

How about "Flesh Mechanics"?

That might get a man or two interested. "Nurse" has mammary overtones.

Re: Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree

#8
post #5

Someone with a shallow familiarity with feminism like myself won't find anything surprising here. That patriarchy (which is a set of commonly held attitudes) disadvantages men as well as women is well understood. That many women have patriarchal attitudes is also well understood. However, don't assume that these things are fixed. Highly feminine occupations such as film editor and software engineer have long since "f…

It is well known that men favor working with things and women favor working with other people. So in a society that provides complete equality you will find that some professions are dominated by a particular sex. Nursing is dominated by women because far more women enjoying working closely with people than men do. That is not going to flip.

The feminist idea that all professions should end up with about 50% participation if there is true equality is patent nonsense.

Re: Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree

#9

I looked for the part about "Their Wives Agree" and didn't find it. What did I miss?

"Ofer Sharone, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has studied middle-aged white-collar professionals who have lost their jobs. He found that some men who might have been willing to consider lower-paid jobs in typically feminine fields encountered resistance from their wives, who urged them to keep looking. “Marriages have more problems when the man is unemployed than the…

This is even more telling when you consider that the husband's employment status is the best predictor of divorce[1]. I wonder if some jobs result in an even higher incidence of divorce than unemployment.

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[1] http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/attach/journals/au...

Re: Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree

#10
post #5

Someone with a shallow familiarity with feminism like myself won't find anything surprising here. That patriarchy (which is a set of commonly held attitudes) disadvantages men as well as women is well understood. That many women have patriarchal attitudes is also well understood. However, don't assume that these things are fixed. Highly feminine occupations such as film editor and software engineer have long since "f…

It is well known that men favor working with things and women favor working with other people. So in a society that provides complete equality you will find that some professions are dominated by a particular sex. Nursing is dominated by women because far more women enjoying working closely with people than men do. That is not going to flip. The feminist idea that all professions should end up with about 50% particip…

Being that we're hairless apes who rely on clothing, fire to break down our food, and a host of other technologies just for basic survival, I'd say our natural biology is pretty damned unimportant when it comes to such high level behavior such as preferred profession in the Western world.

Your culture and your language are by far much more responsible for your desires and actions. Just look how easily mankind is swayed by mere words to go to war!

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