Sjukvård som maskulinitetsprojekt

Abstract

Caring work is culturally coded as feminine. Men constitute approximately five per cent of the nursing occupational group in Norway. Despite political ambitions, the proportion of male nurses is not increasing. Furthermore, the few men are clustered within some few niches, including leadership and management, psychiatric wards and acute medicine. The research question addressed in this artide is how to explain this clustering and to understand why these specific areas attract male nurses. Firstly we examine the gendered implications of entering a female universe and from there move to explore more specifically the clustering processes within the niches where various masculine nursing roles are constructed. As a theoretical starting point, we see masculinity and feminity as relational concepts. Moreover, recent approaches to the study of masculinity are taken into account. From these studies, concepts such as "a project of masculinity", "hegemonic masculinity" and "multiple masculinities" have emerged, which focus on men as gendered individuals and the relationships between men. These concepts proved to be useful when exploring the three niches mentioned above. Each of them is regarded a "project of masculinity". We conclude that all of them draw on different, but nevertheless core cultural aspects of masculinity. To some extent, the dilemmas, ambivalences and potentials of the three projects are dealt with. What they have in common is that they are relational to the hegemonic masculinity within the health field that is constituted by the medical profession. One of the aims of this study was to gain insight in men's caring work and the meaning attached to it. We suggest that there is a need for more gender sensitive scientific models even when studying the content and organisation of such work.