Engendering the Professional Debate: Men and Women in Nursing and Engineering

by Raghu Godavarthi

Think of a nurse and the typical images are of Florence Nightingale and Linda Richards. Think engineer, and the corresponding image would be of a Thomas Edison, or a Robert Fulton. Josephine Cochran, inventor of the mechanical dishwasher, or Walt Whitman, who volunteered as a nurse during the Civil War, are merely historical statistics. Men form a mere 5 percent of the nursing workforce, according to the Wikipedia article on male nurses.

Campus enrollment statistics support this. According to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the national average for men enrolling in undergraduate nursing program is 10.4 percent; for graduate programs, it is 8.9 percent. But UAH has traditionally had numbers higher than the national average. The percentages at UAH are 14.6 percent for undergraduates and 9.8 percent for graduates, and have not fluctuated much over the years.

The engineering side of the story almost flips the numbers. The National Society of Women Engineers counts 17.2 percent in undergraduate programs are women, and 22.3 percent in graduate programs are women. For UAH, the figures are 18.4 percent and 19.7 percent, respectively, again with low deviation.

Given the skewed gender ratio, some prejudices do exist. Charlsie Smith, a senior and civil engineering senior said, “They say and/or show me through actions that I am less of an engineer because I am female.” Lisa Blanchard, a graduate engineering management student, recounts her undergraduate days when being the only woman in the class meant that she was rarely heard. She is glad that male engineers have “greater regard” for their female counterparts today.

Alwin Heuer, a sophomore and nursing student, does not find much difference within the university, but finds a difference in hospitals where women nurses are generally better received. “It takes a lot of encouragement, time and will to become a nurse, whether male or female,” he added. He is appreciative of the support shown by the staff and faculty here toward male students. James Thompson, a nursing senior, agreed,saying there is no “awkwardness” being male.

from: The Exponent