The 'Nontraditional' Workplace
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-06-04/nontraditional-workplace
For decades, women have made slow but steady progress breaking through the "glass ceiling" in the American workplace, attaining jobs in fields previously dominated by men. Now, men appear to be making inroads into jobs traditionally associated with women, such as nursing and teaching. They aren't displacing female workers, but men often earn more and enjoy faster promotion schedules--a phenomenon known as the "glass escalator." We explore the implications of this shift in the workplace with Howard Ross.
Guests
Howard Ross
author, "Reinventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose, and Performance" (Rowman & Littlefield); also Principal, Cook Ross
Caren Goldberg
Assistant Professor, Kogod School of Business at American University
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I have been a male registered nurse for 15 years. The portion of RNs that are male has stayed about the same. I believe most males are employed in ERs and ICUs.
I have found that there is a great deal of bias against males in nursing. Many managers dislike the idea of having male nurses, seeing the coming of males as a hostile takeover of a good profession from women.
Nearly every patient and family member expects the nurse to be a female. No manager will be criticized for hiring a female.
Some patients groups, particularly females, are not comfortable with being assigned a male nurse, so having a male nurse is a problem when making patient assignments. This fact, in addition to the feeling males nurses must be gay or otherwise creepy, makes the bias toward hiring females even more reasonable.
I graduated with honors from Case Western Reserve University, have my Oncology Certified Nurse credential and tens years of oncology nursing experience. In the last year and a half of desperately searching for a position, hospitals have said they are hiring new graduates and other less qualified nurses but have no interest in hiring me.
Just a note on the numbers. Based on the last HHS/HRSA survey in 2008, there were 2.86 million women registered nurses; 202 thousand men. The male percentage can only increase very slowly given that distribution.
Male RNs made up 6.2 percent of employed RNs who were licensed before 2000 and 9.6 percent of those licensed in 2000 or later. The most recent statistics on nursing students in BSN programs suggest the male percentage of students is approaching 12%.