Nursing is considered traditionally in America and other Western countries to be a predominantly female occupation. However, since the 16th century there have been male nurses. The stereotypes of nurses only being female are beginning to fade with time.
Many nursing text books in the '60s had no mention of the male gender, except as a patient. It was always portrayed as the female nurse caring for the male patient.
Forty years on, the stereotypes and prejudices against male nurses has begun to fade, however there still is room for improvement. Open discrimination at schools is disappearing, however the nursing system itself still uses many feminine pronouns (for example, many places still refer to nurses as "sister" etc).
Paradoxically, at the first nursing school that was ever opened, in 250 BC in India, only men were considered "pure" enough to be nurses. In the Byzantine Empire, nursing was an occupation primarily practiced by men, as mentioned in Luke 10:35-36.
So, historically, men have been at the forefront of nursing, however, later it became distorted that women should be nurses. Currently, about 6% of all nurses are male, but with prejudice against male nurses decreasing, this is bound to increase.
However, there are still reports of male nurses being blocked from accessing ob/gyn floors and women's health wards. There is also some difficulty and discrimination faced by men wanting to become nurse-midwives.
Many nursing professionals feel that the nursing shortage in America can be overcome, if nurses are recruited from all walks of life and the doors of nursing is thrown open to everyone, rather than just females. This seems to be the direction that the occupation is beginning to move in, hopefully we will see a continual decline in discrimination against male nurses.
