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Jaylan McLaughlin
Professor Cassandra Blandford
UWRT 1103
9 December 2015
Understanding Gender Rebels in the Workplace
Like most children growing up, I was always exposed to men doing certain jobs and
women doing others. If there was someone who stayed at home to take care of the
house/children, it was usually the woman. Even though I didnt realize it, I started categorizing
careers to be gender specific, while labeling the exceptions to be unorthodox. In society, most
men dont want to be considered feminine and most women dont want to be considered
masculine. It causes problems with self identity which isnt good for anyone. This concept is
seen a lot more in children because their minds are so impressionable. Once told that they are
supposed to be a certain way, kids tend to follow. I believe that this is what happened to me. I
could never see myself having a job that would be considered for women. Specifically, when
people ask me why Im not interested in becoming a nurse, I just cant look past the feminine
connotation that the job has had historically. In elementary school I always saw women being
nurses and teachers while the men were police officers or handymen. This of course is changing
over time due to the fact that there are people who are okay with going against the social norm.
My experience with reading and writing hasnt been the greatest due to the way the
curriculum made us approach them. This assignment would have driven me insane if it paralleled
with my past research papers. I always had to read texts that I didnt care about and find sources
to help analyze the text. The fact that I was allowed to choose a topic that interested me made me
approach this assignment differently than I would others. I took it head on and didnt

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procrastinate. The main reason I think this happened is because I have a personal connection to
it. My parents are prime examples of people who went against the gender norm and the fact that
Ive lived with them all my life and still cant relate to why people do this baffles me. They were
my inspiration in choosing the topic of men in feminine careers and women in masculine
careers. I wanted to know why they chose to go against the typical type of jobs for their gender.
In understanding this, maybe I can figure out what it is that makes it so difficult for me to do so.
I want to be able to look at careers from a neutral, unbiased perspective.
In order to do this, I knew I had to do some research. I usually hate it but because I was
interested in the topic, finding sources and reading them wasnt bad at all. Since my parents were
the epitome of the topic I chose, I used them as two sources of people that I could interview. All
of my other sources were articles. Even though my original topic was on men and women in
careers that dont necessarily match gender norms, I narrowed it down. I decided to focus on stay
at home dads and male nurses, and female engineers. I chose to do this because these are some of
the main jobs in my generation that are becoming more and more diverse as far as gender is
concerned. The five sources that benefited me the most were three articles and my two personal
interviews.
The first article I read was on the topic of women in the field of engineering. Specifically,
it was from the perspective of a journalist who interviewed three women to see why they chose
to be engineers and how they manage to keep their jobs. The first woman talks about how it
doesnt phase her that she is in a career that consists of mostly men. She carries on as if it were
any other job. She does however, mention how she has to be careful with questioning the men.
She knows that men tend to accept taking criticism from other men than women. The second
woman said she chose the job because her father always told her to get a mans job and that it

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paid better. She talks about how she constantly gets tested by the men in her workplace to see if
she belongs there and how experienced she is. She also doesnt let this phase her and continues
proudly working as an engineer. The third woman said she actually likes working with men
because their approach matches her personality.
The second thing I did was interview my mother who has been an electrical engineer for
22 years. I wanted to compare her responses to those of the women in the article. She told me
that her personal motivation for becoming an engineer was that all of her life she knew she loved
math and computers. It seemed like the perfect job for her. She never took much thought about it
being a male career until she actually became one. Once she started working at IBM, she
noticed that there were a lot of male faces. In conferences, they would question her a lot to what
seems like test her knowledge or as she put it: weed her out. She has not let this deter her
because she is satisfied with her position.
Reading the article and interviewing my mom gave me some good insight to how women
view working in a mans world. Based off of what they said, I came to the conclusion that
women arent intimidated when working a mans job. They treat it like any other job and do it
to the best of their abilities. There isnt one specific reason that women choose these jobs but the
main two seem to be money and personal interest. Even though they face challenges such as
constant questioning of adequacy at their position, they arent easily deterred.
In order to see if there was a difference in the views of both genders, I decided to look at
men in feminine careers (particularly nursing and stay at home dads). The first article I read
was about stay at home dads. This was probably the most useful to me as far as getting an
understanding of how men could go down this feminine route of life. When I hear stay at home
dad, I imagine a small framed man dressed in an apron wearing and oven mitt. I just could

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never understand how men could give up their masculinity by deciding to do this. The article
talked mainly about why men choose to be stay at home fathers. It surprised me to find out that
even though personal interest, there are more factors in the decision to become one. Stay at home
fathers arent any more feminine than other men. There used to be a large absence of fathers in
the home due to the fact that they spent all of their time working. This is shifting because there
are more women in the workplace now. With women working, men dont have to be the
breadwinners. If a couple has a child and the woman makes more money out of the two
parents, the father will often be the one to stay home to take care of the baby. Reading this made
me realize that being a stay at home father can actually be very smart financially and made me
appreciate it more.
The second male related article I read was about how male nurses are considered
feminine or gay. Male nurses face many challenges in the workplace mainly because of the
stigma around them being gay. Due to widespread homophobia, male co-workers tend to be
hesitant in interacting with them. Female co-workers dont take male nurses seriously when they
try to flirt with them because they assume theyre gay also. Patients also tend to be wary of male
nurses. Male patients dont want male nurses giving them intimate care (Bathing or getting them
dressed) because they dont want to be touched by a man in that way. Female patients also have
some difficulty allowing male nurses to take care of them because it makes them uncomfortable
having a man that they dont know very well see them and touch them while nude. Despite these
numerous challenges, men who are already nurses dont let it discourage them because theyve
been doing it and know they love it. This however is not the case for young men who are trying
to decide if they want to become a nurse. The stigma around male nurses being gay discourages
them from choosing to be one which is a big reason why I personally dont have any interest in

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becoming one. Judgment of male nurses however is changing with time along with society.
People are starting to accept gay people and the level of homophobia is decreasing. Even though
most male nurses arent gay, it helps with peoples comfort in interacting with them.
The last thing I did to gain insight on the mind of men who choose to be in feminine
careers was interview my dad. Growing up, he really wanted to be a nurse. As he got older,
something changed and he no longer wanted to become a nurse. I was curious to see if he was a
victim of the bad stigma around nurses like me. He told me that the main reason he wanted to be
a nurse in the first place was that he knew he wanted to care for people, but he didnt want to go
through all of the schooling to be a doctor. He also said that he was aware of the stigma around
male nurses but he just ignored it because it didnt matter to him. His reason for changing his
mind in becoming a nurse was that as he took the classes in college, he found himself not
interested in the material. He realized that his true calling was vehicles so he decided to pursue a
career as a specialized mechanic. Even though he didnt go all the way through with being a
nurse, his responses were very helpful.
As society progresses, gender norms are changing. Women are no longer the ones who
stay at home and take care of the house and children. Men are no longer the ones who go to work
all day and make all of the money for the family. Womens role in the workforce is increasing
and more opportunities are opening up. Men are putting their pride and ego aside and choosing
to go with a career that they are truly passionate about. They arent worried about the money or
the stigma around it being for women. Both genders face numerous challenges in the careers they
choose but this isnt stopping them from continuing to fulfill their dreams.
I feel like doing this inquiry project really helped expand my literacy. Without it, I never
wouldve taken the time to understand men and women in careers outside of their gender norms.

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I have learned a lot about the topic but I feel as if theres more that I can learn. I am aware of
why some people do it, the challenges they face in doing so, and why they continue to do what
they do. I wont judge people as often when I hear their occupation and think about gender
norms because I know there are underlying factors in their decision. They are people just like
everybody else and are doing what they can to make a living and be as happy as possible.

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"Gender in the equation." Press, The 15 Aug. 2013: 6. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 19
Oct. 2015.

Harding, Thomas. "Original Research: The Construction of Men Who Are Nurses As Gay."
Journal of Advanced Nursing. 60.6 (2007): 636-644. Print.

Hopson, Nichelle. Personal interview. 24 Oct. 2015.

McCaffrey, Paul. "New Perspectives On Fatherhood." Points Of View: Reference Shelf - Family
Structure (2014): 6. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

McLaughlin, Curtis. Personal interview. 24 Oct. 2015.