Sexual Discrimination in Nursing Schools

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Sexual discrimination in nursing schools
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1SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION IN NURSING SCHOOLS
Since time immemorial, gender and racial discrimination has been one of the major
obstacles in the medical communities. Most importantly, such bias and prejudice has penetrated
the world of nursing education as well. In the medical communities, women have always had to
crawl their way to the top, in order to gain some degree of legitimacy in the profession. The
sector of nursing education has predominantly been reserved for women; as such, the profession
has been ripe with sexual discrimination (Kellet, Gregory & Evans, 2014).
As a matter of fact, it can be said that sexual discrimination as a part of the nursing
profession has been around since the time of Florence Nightingale. Back in the 19th and 20th
centuries, women were considered to be appropriate for the nursing role because of their inherent
motherly and caring nature. On the contrary, men were considered to be rough and hardy, and
too clumsy to care for sick individuals. A gross misconception, one must argue. It is unfair to
segregate any particular sex into a definite sphere, based on his or her gender (Polit & Beck,
2013). One must remember, that gender roles exist, because people fail to perceive the difference
between sex and gender. While sex is anatomical and biological, gender is the social construct
that is associated with the biological sex. In other words, men and women, irrespective of the
profession they are in, are expected to act in a certain way that suits their genders.
Sexual discrimination within the field of nursing education can be segregated into two
categories – benevolent and hostile sexism. Hostile sexism is most common, and entails negative
attitudes, passing of remarks, blatant negative comments and may even include physical harm. In
nursing, it is usually the men who are subjected to such hostile sexism, since nursing is
commonly viewed as a “woman’s job.” It is in nursing, more than any other educational program
that men are forced to succumb to physical and verbal sexual discrimination (Chiarella &
Adrian, 2014). Yet, the question arises as to why such a stereotype prevails. It can be said that