Why are most nurses female?

Traditional attitudes to male and female roles do play a part as you all have said, and those that mention poor pay are right too.

However, in most countries after a positive period during the 1970s towards equality of the sexes and men beginning to seek jobs traditionally associated with women and women seeking jobs traditionally associated with men, we seem now to have regressed to a certain extent.

Any profession or job that can even remotely be seen as "caring" has in the course of the 1990s onward to today has become more and more the province of women.

It is difficult to interest men in the teaching profession, in working in social services, working in kindergartens, working as home-helps or carers and even in entering the church as ministers or becoming vets. So it is not only nursing and midwifery that are seen as the province of women.

On the other hand there are still relatively few women in the ranks of merchants seamen, lorry drivers, blacksmiths, carpenters or joiners, bricklayers and stonemasons.

Impressions can be misleading I think. I took this off the NMC website.

‘There are currently over 690,000 registered nurses in the UK. In 2017 the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) reported that just 10.8% of registered nurses were men (NMC, 2017). The fact that only 74,580 registered nurses are male means that nursing is one of the most gender-segregated jobs in the United Kingdom.9 Jan 2021’.

Of the 10.8% of male nurses, here’s the percentage for mental health:
‘An early study showed that 32% of psychiatric nurses were male (John, 1961), compared to the 34% in this study. This figure matches that in a recent report (Ferguson et al., 2004), which also shows that among new recruits to mental health nursing, the proportion of men is lower (27%).‘
This was from a recent report by City of London ac.

So, it’s not actually changed that much in at least the last 20 years.

I think it's basically MONEY and STATUS.

The best NHS midwife my daughter had was a male one.

And "midwife", comes from with woman, ElderlyPerson.

Probably because women have more compassion than men. Plus as a woman I much prefer to be dealt with by a woman, on occasions where I have seen a man I haven’t felt 100% comfortable as they don’t seem to have as much common sense or bad bedside manner. Doctors it is fine whether they are male or female, suppose they are not hands on like nurses.

DD3 is just starting her nursing degree this coming academic year, at the campus tour all the students were female

Not true of learning disability nurses and mental health nurses. Lots of males in those branches.

The hospital I work in, has a surprising number of Male Nurses, including a significant number of Male nurses from Abroad.
All caring very able men, and a lot of senior Nursing staff on a ward are men. On today's wards having a Male Nurse or 2 is a bonus.
Most careers in the NHS are still mostly female dominant but there are lots of men, I reckon the Labs probably more Men than women, it's all change.
Even the" Archers "has a storyline running at the moment ref one of Archer boys trying to become a Male Nurse.

I had a male midwife back in the 80’s. Also a male health visitor. Both were excellent at their jobs. The HV went everywhere by bicycle at a time when all other midwives & HV’s used cars. He had a wicker basket on the front, a la Call The Midwife, including scales to weigh the baby!

I remember years ago (1992) getting a male midwife when i had my youngest DD- the others (all female, mostly trainees) had come and gone over 24 hours and not helped much -but when he came on duty and my waters broke he took over calmly and smoothly and i had her in under an hour.He was very good, knew his job well.Male midwives were pretty scarce in those days.(they had just shown one before this on 'Only Fools and Horses' tv show i think- and my hubby said "hope you don't have a male one"- haha famous last words??

Newatthis

At one time, if you were married and female, the only acceptable job was a nurse or a teacher. This is what i was told when newly married and becoming a service wife.

Yes. By the time my mother started teaching in the early fifties, single women who go married were able to carry on with their teaching job. I don't know how long that had been the case though.

Back in the 1970’s I had a wonderful male health visitor. He said he didn’t know of any other males who had the same role, although I’m sure there must have been 1 or 2! He was excellent but apparently many families wouldn’t let him near their homes as the men saw him as a threat to their women. He was a really kind, gentle man and very well suited to his role. Hopefully he paved the way for others to follow.

Sorry I think it’s much more about the pay scale and the long unforgiving hours

I thought Chardy`s comment was tongue and cheek tbh.

At one time, if you were married and female, the only acceptable job was a nurse or a teacher. This is what i was told when newly married and becoming a service wife.

Most primary teachers are also female these days. Something to do with pay rates perhaps ?

Ps..as for midwives. Well, my personal opinion is they should all have given birth themselves. So men shouldn’t be doing that. It is just my opinion though.

When I was a nurse, early eighties, male nurses were quite a new thing. They weren’t allowed to do many procedures involving women. So putting them on bedpans, washing, without the consent of the patient. They did Obs and Gynae, but were limited, obviously.

They came into their own with things like heavy lifting, and making patients feel securely handled, more than say, a five foot tall female nurse.

As for the caring side, I always found them just as nurturing as the women. They had chosen that profession after all. There were some awful bullish female nurses, especially on night duty. Don’t know why.

I’ve no idea what men in nursing are like now, having had no experience. Generally though, I find men much easier to talk to than women these days, but that’s probably another thread.

Shelflife

A good nurse is a good nurse regardless if gender , women are perceived as caring but that is not necessarily so . There have been some very cruel nurses and teachers throughout history. Male midwives are now appearing , in my day that was unheard of , but if a man is professional , and works with caring efficiency then why not ?

Why not is asked. Because it might make a lot of women uneasy having a male, even if he is a nurse, rather than a female. My view is that a woman needing a midwife (there is a gender clue in the job title!) should be asked if she is happy to have a male midwife and given the option to have a female midwife if she chooses to do so. Maybe that is the practice, I don't know. I remember that cervical cancer screening was organised and advertised as female doctors and nurses. Is that still the case? Maybe I am old-fashioned and out of touch with modern mainstream thinking, but it seems to me that if there really is care for a patient that she should be given a choice. I know that in everyday life there is the men's changing room and the women's changing room and so on, and that in hospital things are often different, yet there is a delicate balance between everyday and hospital and in my opinion that should not be disregarded.

Agreed, sodapop. Of the physically hardest and most disgusting jobs, men do the vast majority.

Chardy

It's badly paid (and exhausting work), so men don't want to do it.

Not a pleasant comment Chardy my ex husband was a nurse as are several male friends. There are quite a lot of men working in the field of mental health and as carers in residential homes.

A good nurse is a good nurse regardless if gender , women are perceived as caring but that is not necessarily so . There have been some very cruel nurses and teachers throughout history. Male midwives are now appearing , in my day that was unheard of , but if a man is professional , and works with caring efficiency then why not ?

Typos! Gah!

There’s a major shortage of nurses, although the pay structures are much better than they were years ago. The percentage of men joining nursing hasn’t changed by more than a few percent in the last twenty years either. I wonder if it’s become a less attractive career because it is actually really hard, physically, mentally and emotionally, and people are choosing less draining options?

Meanwhile suoermarkets were open on Saundays throughout Scotland back then.

Doesn't hang together, does it?

Flexibility is key to progress.

Elegran

I could have added that young girls were then cheap to employ as well as plentiful in the labour market. So were (and still are) older women looking for work on night shifts and weekends that could be fitted in with the needs of their own families.

Yes! When we had two small kids in a poor part of Edinburgh I remember a Labour Party member ranting about the City Council (Labour run) wanting to introduce public library opening times on Sundays. The Party member expressed outrage that it would destroy people's day of rest.

BUT, being a library assistant at our local library on a Sunday was the kind of job that would have suited me perfectly at that time. I wanted to be my kids' primary carer while they were little but we could have done with a bit more money because my husabnd's academic job at that time was not very well paid.